Your Hiro Inside
by Lavenderpaw
Summary: A near-fatal accident causes Hiro to reconsider his place on the team, as well as re-examine what Baymax really means to him. Meanwhile, a new villain may just hold the key to bringing about the end of San Fransoyko. Complete!
1. The return of our hero

_**Dedicated to:**_

The Parks who live by the park with no place to park.

 **I.**

Hiro looked out the window of the huge jetliner returning him from Yīngxióng, China.

"Whoa..." He pressed his hand on the glass. Baymax never reached these heights.

The mere thought of his inflatable, plush pal kept cooped up in his cold lab made the fourteen-year-old sit back in guilt. Hiro rested his head on the plane seat and thought about what his best friend meant to him. _I really need to start treating him like he is._

"Int'l Flight 131 in route from Yīngxióng to San Fransoyko will begin it's descent."

Though the plane dipped smoothly, Hiro still felt the need to grasp the handles.

He saw the long, windowed airport as they arrived rapidly to their terminal. "Wait 'til everyone gets a load of this," Hiro pulled out a metal case containing the project he'd been working on; the entire reason he had gone to China and worked in microbiology.

"And Baymax..." Hiro turned his head as the plane rolled to their gate. "He's probably been so lonely when he's not on a mission. I _gotta_ make it up to him." He mumbled.

"Do you often talk to yourself?" A thin-boned, angular lady asked. Hiro gasped a little.

She smiled with peculiar interest at him.

"Probably," Hiro smiled awkwardly. He hadn't noticed her at all the whole trip, but this woman wore a long, tailored khaki dress, a flowered scarf over her head and shades.

Not exactly someone you'd chat with.

"I'd like to speak with you, Hiro Hamada," she lowered her sunglasses. "Momentai."

"Huh?" He looked back at her, confused as to why she was still talking to him.

"It's means 'Don't Worry.' "

The automated pilot came on. "Now de-boarding Flight 131." It ran through protocol.

This mechanized voice made seeing Baymax all the more urgent.

"Hero's calling," Hiro excused himself, excitedly grabbing his belongings and rushing to get off. Everyone sent him a look as he bounced in place while they languidly rose.

"In a bit of a hurry?" The Chinese woman asked him.

"Uh-huh."

"Well, permit me to say... it is both an honor and a privilege to-," A rotund gentleman squeezing out caused Hiro's silver case to whack her in the face. She slowly fainted to the floor while barely anyone noticed, her expression goofy. Hiro kept jouncing in line.

Finally, the gate opened and everyone milled out to greet their families.

Hiro rushed out and skimmed the terminal. He didn't find Aunt Cass or Baymax.

A look of hurt touched his face as he pulled out his phone.

"Híro!"

The teen looked up and beamed as he noticed his friends lounging near a charge-up station. Without really thinking about it, Hiro ran up with his arms out to them. Most of them just watched him curiously which made him slow down, his arms falling to his sides. It had been almost three weeks, weren't they happy to see him? And Baymax?

"Hey, kid." Wasabi smiled at him.

"Oh, Híro." Honey took his arms. "Are you okay? You look a little... pale."

"Yeah..." He shook his head and stepped back.

"You sure, buddy?" Wasabi asked.

"I'm cool," he grinned, dodging. "Wow, hey. It's great seeing you guys here. Uh...?"

"Baymax is back with Aunt Cass," GoGo assured him, arms folded against the beam.

"Oh, great. You moved him back home?" Hiro was relieved.

The Lucky Cat Café was his first stop before heading back to the lab.

"Actually, everyone but me thought it was best A.C. finally knew about Baymax."

Fred told Hiro as he struggled with the finger trap he had played with for weeks now.

" _Fred_!" They chastised him.

Hiro gave a laugh. "Oh, well that's cool. As long as he... **_what?!_** "

To be continued...

~ Lavenderpaw ~


	2. Catch-up convo

**I.**

Hiro ran from Wasabi's little electric car - Fred had been promised a more suitable one from his father after Fred brought up his Algebra l grade - and up the familiar backdoor leading directly into his aunt's bakery. The surprised woman turned to face Hiro in her flour-splotched apron and immediately opened her arms to embrace him.

"Hey, Aunt Cass!" The teen swerved around her and encountered a blinking Baymax.

"Hiro?"

"Hey, buddy!" He jumped up on the robot, hugging him about the neck.

Aunt Cass stood with her arms out, her expression stuck in unmet expectation.

She slowly brought her them up in an awkward pose.

"Hey, Aunt C." Wasabi came to her side and plopped a doughnut in his mouth.

"Hello, Wasabi."

"A.C., hey." Fred used his thumbs to flip one of the chocolate pastries into his mouth.

"Need some help?" Honey Lemon stole the tray away and handed it back to her.

"Thank you, Honey." Aunt Cass smiled.

"And a hug?" GoGo offered her services.

"Of course," she laughed, hugging her with one arm.

Both women turned to see Hiro and Baymax nuzzle a moment, before the teen swung himself up onto the robot's shoulders and start telling him about his trip. He crammed a doughnut into his mouth, going more into depth then Aunt Cass could comprehend.

She and GoGo shared a look, to which the younger girl shrugged.

...

"So, Hiro...?" Aunt Cass picked at her Chow Mein. "Any plans this afternoon?"

"Just goin' down to the lab," He said without looking up, scarfing down his lunch.

"Hiro, did you know your aunt has added a gluten-free selection to her bakery?"

The two looked up at the neutral comment Baymax had made.

"Yep," Hiro slurped up a noodle, "Sounds like you buddy." he poked his belly lovingly.

Aunt Cass smiled and twined her fingers together. "Hiro...?" she looked at Baymax.

He nodded his support.

"Are you planning on doing anything...eventful, after the lab?"

"No, why?" Hiro didn't look up from his noodles, his mind elsewhere.

"I mean, you're not doing something that involves... _action,_ right? Danger?"

The teen lifted a shaggy brow. "I gave up bot fighting, Aunt Cass." he told her.

"Oh, really..."

Baymax laid a hand on each of their shoulders. Hiro gave him a confused look.

" _So you're not a superhero?!_ "

This immediately caused Hiro to start choking on his lunch.

"Hiro!?"

The healthcare bot turned the teen over and Aunt Cass delivered the heel of her hand roughly in between his shoulder blades. Pieces landed on Baymax's face as Aunt Cass turned Hiro toward her, almost panting in her harbored fury. The teen was speechless.

He'd only been gone three weeks!

"Who told you this?!" Hiro looked helplessly at Baymax.

"She... got suspicious one night, when she heard me donning my suit."

"In my room?"

"On the roof." Baymax pointed upwards.

"Hiro," Aunt Cass made him look at her again. "Why didn't you _tell_ me these things?"

"Well, I-,"

"What if something _happened_ to you?" She tried to hold him.

"Nothing is going to happen to me," Hiro backed away and looked at Baymax. "Trust me," he smiled and started to touch her face, her real fear made him drop his hands.

"Hiro," his aunt weakly argued.

"Aunt Cass, as long as I have Baymax, nothing can hurt me." He told her.

"He is right, Aunt Cass." Baymax turned to her. "I am programmed to both assist in keeping your nephew healthy, and protecting him in our line of duty." He didn't fully appreciate her newfound rage. "The risk to Hiro's well-being is minimal." He told her.

"And what about _my_ well-being?"

"Aunt Cass!" Hiro whined. "How long have you known!?"

"If you can believe it, just this morning. Apparently my little café isn't the gossip hub it once was and I never really follow the news, so cast my vote for unawares, Hiro."

"Your aunt's heart rate is rising..." Baymax detected.

"No kidding!" She stood up and tucked her bangs behind her ear.

"Why didn't you just call me when you found out?" Hiro asked her.

"Why didn't you just tell me in the _first place_?" She countered.

The teen stood back, thinking. "How much does she know, Baymax?"

"How much _do I know_?! How much do _not_ know!? What have you been keeping from me?" Her eyes went to Baymax, holding the robot responsible just like she would if...

"How much would you like to know?" He asked innocently, cocking his head.

This interrupted Hiro's train of thought.

"C'mon, Baymax!" Hiro had his best friend by the arm, gave his surprised aunt a peck on the cheek like a lightening strike, and charged for the backdoor. "Goin' to the lab!"

Next time he would keep Baymax at the lab, Hiro noted. Rescinding earlier thoughts.

To be continued...

 **A/N** : Thank you for reading and yes, more to come soon.


	3. Short end of the slope: Pt 1 or 2

_San Fransokyo Institute of Technology..._

 **I.**

A chill iced the spring air as Hiro and Baymax walked side-by-side past the newly built and renamed exhibition hall where new tech was being presented; Hiro occasionally had to walk on the grass but when he saw Baymax lift an arm the teen jumped right back up beside him.

He smiled at the robot. "Got that Mandarin app I texted you?"

Baymax turned his head. "Nǐ hǎo, Wǒ jiào dàbái."

"Excellent!"

"I can also utilize seven other traditional dialects..."

"No, it's okay buddy." Hiro patted his belly. "I'm just going to need a possible monitor to read off of tonight. Ehh," He scratched his messy hair. "Language was my one weakness."

His friend seemed to realize this was a great admittance. Hiro put his hands in his jacket.

"I can help you study and do better tonight. You will have to present your newest invention to the world, Hiro." The teen smiled at him. "I would like to help you in any way that I can."

"Hey, just being here _means_ the world to me, buddy." Hiro held out his fists. "Ready?"

Baymax looked down, stalling. "I could access memory more efficiently with a chip, Hiro."

"Uh-uh," He shook his head, grinning. "I've been practicing every night on my own."

The robot met his eyes and fiddled with his fingers, like Honey did when she was nervous.

"I won't laugh," Hiro said gently. "Just try."

Baymax placed his fists out, Hiro leveled his with the robot's. They then flipped their wrists and tapped fists, switched fists and tapped, both about faced and did the standard three-fist bump, slap, slap, then turned around and repeated it faster. Baymax looked up as Hiro tried outdoing him. The robot complied with this, but never tried outdoing Hiro himself. It dawned on him after a moment that this was what Hiro wanted and so he went just a little bit faster.

"Gah!" Hiro face-planted in his stomach. Baymax blinked. "Okay... we gotta work on it."

The balloon bot grasped Hiro under his arms and brought him up to eye-level.

"You do all this out of companionship." Baymax stated.

"Of course," Hiro brushed some of his bangs out of his eyes. "You're my best friend."

Without another word, Baymax settled Hiro close to him in a hug.

The teen snuggled close to his puffy body.

"I hope I didn't miss too much," he slipped off and draped Baymax's arm over himself.

"I will fill you in," The robot said as he walked Hiro to his first class. "Then I will return to-,"

"Hiro." GoGo's voice came from Hiro's pocket and from Baymax's chest.

"Yeah, GoGo." "Yes, GoGo."

"There's a robbery at the Tadashi Hamada Exhibition Hall."

"But that's where I'm having my next tech reveal." Hiro said. He was about to turn Baymax off so he could run and get their suits when he felt the robot pick him up. They bounced to where multiple suits were hidden in storage lockers around campus. Hiro rolled out a groan.

"Hiro?"

"When I make my reveal tonight, we won't have to worry about this anymore."

"Hiro."

"What Baymax, we're here." The teen jumped down.

"Hiro, look."

"I know Baymax, we're-," The roof of the building blew out as a fast, black craft jettisoned out of it. "Baymax." Hiro was pulling his suit on as the puffy bot was already donned in his.

"I am on it, Hiro."

" _We're_ on it, buddy." The fourteen-year-old said as he climbed on Baymax and patted his arm.

They blasted off into the sky after the bandits.


	4. Short end of the slope: Pt 2 or 2

_Lake Dubai, the Sierra Nevada mountain range..._

 **I.**

Tiny balls filled the air and exploded in a cloud of red. Through this, a stealth jet swooshed down at an almost vertical angle. Pink and orange spread and solidified the puff of crimson into a thick abstraction. _Pooooowwww!_ A black-fingered fist crashed into it, sending pieces everywhere like shards of glass. Hiro rode atop Baymax as he lead the chase with his team.

Seeing the black object gaining airspeed, he pressed down on his ear.

"Honey, GoGo, take the left. Fred, Wasabi, you go right. Let's end this at the bottom."

"The bottom? I thought we were..."

"Fred, go right." Hiro instructed.

"Your right, or...?"

"Fred just follow me!" Wasabi told him. "Whoaaa... this is gettin' steep, Hiro."

"I got'cha." Fred said.

Hiro's attention was focused on the project nappers.

"Just a little closer guys..." A throat cleared. "Girls. We're almost there."

This time a tech thief wasn't going to use Hiro's invention for evil.

...

Two black-suited agents sat strapped in their seats, monitoring their autopilot and tailgaters studiously. A man noticed when part of the team came sliding down the mountain very fast.

"Do you want me to deal with this?" His hand lingered over a trajectory toggle.

"Yes, but not quite in that manner." The other agent, a woman, faced her companion. Her severe haircut moved only slightly as she looked at the widescreen up in the console. The camera showed the team spreading out along the rear. "If we want to lose track of all these pursuers, we're going to have to attack the head of the pursuit." She focused on the leader.

"Dian?"

"ASM missiles are much too high and fast for these grounded ones..." Dian respected that their in-flight pursuers were closing in. "And we can't have these two diverted long enough for their teammates to stop us." She looked to Hua. "The side launchers, computer-guided."

He wiggled the toggle lightly.

"But where to...?" Dian debated.

Hua looked up and enlarged the screen to a hologram, showing the nearest populous.

"Their beloved San Fransoyko?"

A wicked smile crossed Dian's face.

Her companion typed in a sequence on his grid board and pulled up at the toggle.

"Now, while all this is going on..." The woman pulled out a small handgun, pulled out the back and slipped a tiny, tubular object inside. "I am going to have some fun with nánhái."

The back snapped into place.

...

Just as they were right at the base of the enormous mountain, Baymax's head snapped up.

"Hiro, I am detecting new coordinates from the stealth craft."

"Really...?" He fiddled with his earpiece. "I'm sure not hearing them."

The robot's scan was interrupted as he focused on their direction.

"Hiro, we are fast approaching the bottom." His voice wasn't quite alarmed.

"HIRO!" Everyone else chorused.

" _Ah!_ " He hit his helmet. "Pull-up, pull up!" The teen tried physically raising his best friend.

"Look there." Baymax pointed out, still invested in Hiro's mission.

Sideways doors opened under the wings and four projectiles launched at a quiet boom. Hiro did not have time to worry if they'd hit his friends, he and Baymax were right above the jet.

...

"I hate to separate good friends," Dian held her hand outside of a small part of the window.

Hiro and his robot weren't twenty feet above them.

"Say goodbye to your large buddy, young Hamada."

She pulled down on the trigger as the stealth craft flipped like a weather vane, righted itself and zipped off. Baymax took a solid hit to the ground just as he'd begun pulling up. Higher up something was flying into the air, then free-falling in flips... like it had been jettisoned. It took a moment and then Hiro came into view, screaming and tumbling airborne as pieces of his best friend's suit blew across the snow in a scattered mess. The boy tucked his head into his arms as his body pitched forward through the air and skirted the mist. He tensed to die.

Hiro neared the earth.

A loud swoosh of air and something grabbed him up. Hiro jerked up his head in surprise and saw he was riding Baymax toboggan-like down a smoother incline. The idea that the thieves had gotten away made Hiro drop his head, he clasped Baymax more securely on the arms.

"I will not let anything happen to you." The robot blinked up at him.

Hiro gave him a warm smile. "I know, pal." his hand relaxed their hold.

He rode down on Baymax's belly before radioing his friends as the sun sank over the peaks.

To be continued...

 **A/N** : It all goes together, don't worry. ^^


	5. Crossing fire

The next morning in Hiro's lab...

 **I.**

Hiro typed away on his laser keyboard, piecing the parts of Baymax back together and then using different metal and chemical swatches for an alloy adhesive that would keep his best friend together. _If only the big guy wasn't so..._ big _._ Hiro smiled and sipped on his soda a bit.

His phone pinged and he looked down to see that Fred's contact read:

'B-max sure couldn't find that *New angle* huh?'

Hiro's lips went flat as he typed back: STHU Fred.

 _Ping._

Fred: 'Dude, that was GoGo. She broke her phone on the last mission, remember?'

Hiro flew into a panic trying to text back an apology; he then recalled she had promised not to carry her phone in her pants a while back. Hiro tossed his phone on the workshop table and went back to re-fortifying the armor. There was a sudden box that popped up under his normal work computer. His heart almost rose into his throat: A... a virus? It wasn't possible.

No one in the Hamada family had ever gotten so much as spam mail.

The teen noticed it was a familiar, red dragon.

He grinned and pretended to ignore it; it must just be Baymax digging through his archives and sending him daily videos and photos again. He almost giggled at the idea of this friend trying to cheer him up this way. His heart warming, he forgot his stress. Hiro tried now to focus on his work; this consisting of him balling up his fist, trying hard to look like he was thinking, then caving and tapping on the link. A familiar pop rock interlude filled the room.

"He's cool, he's fast. Like a frozen sun." Hiro sang along to it.

"He's young, he's hot, he's the chosen one...

People we're not braggin', he's the _American. Dragon_."

He bobbed his head in time with the Chinese-influenced beat.

"He's gonna stop his en-e-mies! With his _dragon._ _powers_." He dragged the dragon's icon over to Baymax's suit. A re-imagined Baymax with wings and a tail performed his moves.

"Dragon teeth, dragon tail." Hiro pulled back his mouth, shook his rump.

"Burnin' dragon fire... a real _live. wire._ He's the American. Dragon." The teen snatched up his screw driver and turned on his heel. "I'm a dragon, I'm not braggin', it's my destiny!" Hiro rapped and moved in place. "I'm... the magical protector of the S.F.T, ya heard!" He dropped the screw driver and picked up a green broom, using it like a guitar. "American Dra- _gonn_..."

The tinkling rock noise finished on a small flourish, Hiro bowed his head to no one.

Or so he thought.

"Thought you were workin' on those repairs?" Wasabi said from the doorway.

" _Whoa_!" He looked up at his entire team.

"Brought you some lunch from Aunt Cass," Honey gave the bag a little shake.

"I... thought Baymax did that," Hiro gave a weak laugh, turning to remove the features.

"We thought you could use a little break." GoGo came and sat on his desk.

Fred clicked on the American Dragon app to look at it himself.

He scoffed a little. "Guys!"

"Hiro, you've been workin' a month on your project." Wasabi told him. "And you said no one could get the master key for it... sooo," he held up a beach towel and swim trunks hopefully at him. GoGo held up one bikini strap under her light jacket and Honey held up sun screen.

Even Fred offered to show his trunks off.

"Guys... uh, girls," he laughed. "Okay, okay." Hiro added the dragon features to Baymax 3.0 and sent them to his printer. "Just let me fit Maxie and we out-e," he chuckled at his use of slang. Everyone else just kind of looked at him. Hiro suddenly noticed Baymax standing out in the hallway. "Hey, buddy." The teen greeted him. "What'd ya doin' out there? C'mon in!"

"Ready for your new suit?" GoGo smiled, bemused.

"Will it have a narrower design?" Baymax asked simply, pressing his plump arms to his sides.

"We'll see," Wasabi picked some of the suit up, while Honey and Fred retrieved the limbs.

GoGo picked up the head piece in one arm and a complaining Hiro in the other.

"I should mention most of the new features are retractable. Like Fury Night X."

"One dragon at a time, Hiro." His Korean friend shook her head at the offered Manga.

Most _Kaijū_ were interchangeable to her, whether they be anti-heroes or rapping wangsters.

"I wonder what it would've been like to ride him." Fred said, posing like Jake Long.

GoGo groaned. "I have a feeling we're about to find out."

...

"Shortened wingspan, a second pair of wings... all are now double-jointed for a 60 percent increase in recovery time." He pointed to his charts in the middle of S.F.T. Baymax sat there patiently and curiously, everyone else lounged about in their beach outfits looking bored. "I needn't bring up the fact that new angles will no longer be a problem," he smiled at GoGo, then turned to Baymax. "Your thrusters now rotate 3-60. The more indissoluble glue will..."

Baymax raised his hand.

"Yes, Baymax." Hiro answered from beside his finished model.

"What is the flexible appendage at the end for?" He pointed to the three-jointed tail.

"A rudder, for more tight turns." The fourteen-year-old grinned and eagerly started to roll over the pieces of Baymax's suit. "I'll get to mine soon. But let's get this baby on..." When the pieces were secure and in place, everyone had to take a step back. Even Baymax. Hiro stood where he was, admiring his crimson creation proudly. _Well, outer creation anyways._

Baymax blinked and his suit retracted out with pointed wings, a limbered body and taller stature. More curious then alarmed, the robot held out his long fingers and wiggled them.

"Claws?" He turned to Hiro from his new, nine-foot height.

"Better turns," the teen shrugged.

Hiro then went over to place a scarecrow with a kabuki mask on it in the open campus;

No one would be returning for another week anyways.

"Híro, are you sure this is safe?" Honey asked.

He rolled his eyes. "We'll get to Presidio soon. Just hold on a sec."

Baymax blinked as his best friend and leader turned to him; the boy who trusted him.

Who he trusted.

"Baymax," Hiro said, grinning once he was over on the far middle side. "Gatling gauntlet!"

Nothing happened.

GoGo yawned, the others looked bored.

"Now can we go?" Fred asked.

"No way," Hiro went over to a still blinking Baymax, took the big, sharp hand of his partner, then lowered it down to examine it. "Unless the new proxy somehow leaked and jammed..."

Baymax's arm jerked up, sending Hiro flying back with an upwards swipe to his cheek.

"Hiro!" Everyone chorused.

But this time, it was not for their individual safeties.

Hiro backed away slowly as Baymax looked down in surprise. His fingers closed into a fist one-by-one and Hiro's eyes grew, unfocused, then came back to a double-image of Baymax as the robot shot out his fist. His memories flickered. Red eyes blurred his friend's, became his own, then something swiped up Hiro so fast that the image of him in his super suit was snatched away. The boy didn't see the fist smash into the scarecrow, he didn't see anything.

Only the muffled cries of his friends were enough to make him try and breathe again.

To be continued...


	6. Too much to care

**I.**

The world around him swam as if he were half-there. What was happening? He had worked so hard for... His mind swerved and his stomach tightened. Hiro had never felt this way. He wasn't really moving around, it was his friends. He was stationary, watching those around him like his life was nearly mute. Hiro was disconnected yet able to observe apathetically.

His friends tried harder and the teen felt the spark of life pierce his skull.

Hands took hold of his arms, stood him up, touched his face, brushed back his bangs.

 _Why do they treat me like a child?_ Hiro's irritation was vague. Then he remembered why.

They had done this before.

"Lifting a person in shock is not recommended," Baymax said dutifully.

Hiro looked up at his friend, trusting his words. The rest of the team stood back cautiously.

When the large, red robot approached him and held out his hands, Hiro's brown eyes raised to see the curved mask over Baymax's face. The red helmet, the red arms, sharp, red, _his eyes...!_ **"No!"** Hiro leapt away from Baymax's touch and the unarmed robot jerked away in rare surprise. It was not in reaction to Hiro's pain, it was the fear that formed in Hiro's eyes.

Everyone looked at each other uncertainly.

Baymax moved on to procedure and gave Hiro a routine scan.

"Your heart rate is elevated and your neurotransmitters strained."

"Uhh...I'm fine."

"Should we get you to a hospital?" GoGo knelt beside him, brushing back his bangs.

" _What_?!" He tried not to be rude about pushing her hand away.

"I would recommend laying him on his back and elevating his feet. I can assist if-,"

"No!" Hiro jolted back in fright. Baymax tilted his head, not understanding his distrust.

Hiro's refusal of logic was nothing new, of course, but not like this.

"Híro, you were almost..."

"Bro, you nearly got..."

"I would've had to be you, and Wasabi would've had to be my older brother!"

"Perhaps air and room to contemplate?" Baymax suggested calmly, keeping his distance.

The others looked at him and complied again.

"Hiro?" His voice sounded a little too mechanical. "I can recommend advice for you."

"I-I'm sorry, guys. I don't know what came over me." He stood up, took in the suit of armor, then took an automatic step back. Alerts pinged on all their phones. "OK, team. Let's get-,"

"The only place _you're_ getting is home," GoGo took his shoulders and steered him towards pavement. "Baymax, call Aunt Cass. Boys, get that thing off Baymax. Honey, a little help."

...

"I can't believe this!" Hiro muttered as he slammed into his room and threw his backpack on the ground. They were actually treating their _leader_ like a _child._ "Who founded Big Hero 6? Who had to leave and work day and night to get their next project not only funded, but...?"

Hiro let out a breath, dropping his shoulders.

He knew why and should have known all along.

The teen kicked his backpack away as he face-planted on his bed.

 _No new leads._ He thought of his stolen project, his embarrassment over having to call and tell his peers and professors, newspapers and cityfolk, the people funding his project... that there was no new project. Even with Hiro's awarded grant for tuition... he buried his head.

The door squeaked open and the teen looked up expectantly.

Aunt Cass appeared. "Sorry, didn't knock." she smiled tentatively. "The team wanted to let you know they're on it. I wished them luck for you." Her nephew's face was lifeless, he then moved his head back into his pillow. "Hiro, I... I know I'm not the one you confide in, but-,"

"Is Baymax here?" He looked up hopefully.

"I think he's sitting this one out."

"That just leaves them down to 4." Hiro rose up and eyed his first suit near Maxie's charger.

"Hiro Hamada, you get in that bed and rest! I know your friends are tracking down tips and clues, as well as protecting the city. You've been gone almost a month, and, Hiro please..."

He really noticed her standing there in the shadows.

Hiro sighed, understanding her worry. "Okay, Aunt Cass." He wished he didn't; sometimes the teen really wished he was still a naive kid. "I'll get some rest." Hiro slid under his covers and didn't argue when she turned out the lights... but he didn't stop thinking about his first five months on the team. He didn't stop remembering what his team had said a month ago:

 _"We've got this, Hiro. Here... now your fingers are trapped just like mine."_

 _"Don't worry. We'll keep the peace, little buddy."_

 _"Híro_ _, we'll miss you every day!"_

 _"I look forward to your return, Hiro. We will message you often."_

 _"Send me some Fortunate Gum or I'm selling your action figures to the highest bidder."_

Hiro tried to smile but could not.

Baymax's voice was much gentler now, "I know what happened today. I could tell you if you would like. I know it would have embarrassed you if I had said more in front of the others."

"Maybe later," The teen mumbled. He didn't care about unsolicited healthcare advice.

Hiro didn't feel sad or depressed...

He didn't feel anything.

As evening light shed through the cracked blinds, Baymax slid into bed and placed his arm around Hiro. Hiro, knowing what this meant, took his friend's arm and draped it around his shoulder. When he felt Baymax's cheek on his head, Hiro fell into a quiet, undisturbed sleep.

To be continued...


	7. Where our hero lies

**I.**

Aunt Cass flipped the sign on the glass door, announcing that the café was closed...

At 1 am instead of the usual 2.

"That gives me only two hours to sleep instead of three," The woman was the verge of complaining as picked up her antiquated rotary phone and spun in the number of the 24-hour child psychiatrist she had used seven months earlier. "Hello, Diane Yu."

"Who is this?" The woman's voice was impersonal.

Cassandra laughed nervously, stroking Mochi who sat on her pastry counter.

"It's Cass Hamada."

"Who? Oh-oh-oh-oh. _Hamada_." Interest drenched Diane's words.

"Yes, hi, it's me again. Um... I'm afraid Hiro's had a bit of a... relapse. Oh! A trigger? Well, I think it's because his science fair project was stolen again. Yes, before it was a paper mache volcano, this time it's a brain made out of broccoli." She sped up her lie.

"Have you tried delving into your nephew's more... _personal_ files, Miss Hamada?"

"Oh," Cassandra bit her nails. "I could never do that."

"Well," Said the slightly lazied voice of all shrinks, "Have you asked anyone close to Hiro what might be the cause of his relapse? Maybe there's something he's doing or someone he's hanging out with that's jeopardizing his recovery, planting reminders..."

"I can't think of what that might be. I mean, he's living with reminders every day."

"Was Hiro... I don't know, out of the country recently? I've seen some things on the news. Maybe your nephew's return from China has sparked more painful memories."

These words hit her heart, her eyes widening in realization. "If you truly care for Hiro, Miss Hamada, you will do whatever it takes to assure he's in a safe environment; With as little as possible reminders of _what once was._ At least until you've isolated the root cause to his relapse. While not removing things entirely, try slowing them down a bit."

Cassandra sighed.

"I understand," She said in the dim light of the kitchen, then hung up the mint-green phone. She looked down at Mochi exasperatingly. "That's the last time I look for the help my family needs in the back of a phone book. Ask Hiro's friends to isolate him... take away reminders of his brother! _My nephew_. In my family we honor those who've passed on," she picked up and stroked Mochi. "Not pretend they were never present."

Cassandra sighed again but this time in disgust, stroking the cat a little harder.

" _Ouw_?" Her green eyes inquired the woman.

"I might ask Baymax to take a peek in Hiro's computer, _just_... to make sure."

"Ouh..."

"I appreciate the robot's help, I really do. But I hope Hiro moves past him someday."

A round shadow blinked from the stairs, then moved away as she finished locking up.

...

"What are we going to do about Híro?" Honey Lemon asked as they sat in her home.

GoGo sighed, opening a can of ginseng tea. "Beats me, you know his stubbornness."

"We gotta have Hiro help us," Wasabi said from his wing-back chair. "We've hit dead end after dead end and we're stretched far too thin to protect all of San Fransokyo."

He fiddled with a rainbow-colored thread rug as he waited for suggestions; Honey's apartment was a nice, Bohemian mix of eclectic odds and ends. Everything from sticks of jasmine incense to a big, glass Buddha decorated her unity-themed home.

"Yeah, it's like trying to find a haystack in an even _bigger_ haystack."

GoGo eyed Fred sitting backwards on an old rocker, fiddling with this finger trap.

"Hiro's our leader, whether we believe we know what's best for him. It's _up_ to him."

Wasabi looked at her nervously. "We're not disbanding...?"

"Of course not!"

"We're still here to uphold Tadashi's wish," Honey Lemon reminded them all.

Even Fred was silent.

"I wonder where Hiro's head is these days," Wasabi noted. "I mean, the five of us have been doin' pretty okay... but, it's not the same. Maybe we should ask Baymax."

"I agree," GoGo looked down, sighing deeply, "I just wish Tadashi was here."

"He _is_ here." Honey Lemon smiled tentatively. Fred and Wasabi shared a hopeful look.

"Then it's settled." GoGo took charge. "We wait to hear what Baymax thinks."

 **II**.

The morning was ethereal in it's early, blue light.

Baymax stared across the length of the rhombus position of the room, looking at the space where Tadashi had once slept. He blinked at the shadows and wondered if he could show himself video feed of Tadashi. His hand laid upon Hiro's head and he gave the child his full attention. Baymax never thought why Hiro mattered to him, he never had personal thoughts. It wasn't necessary or a part of his programming, but at times there was an errant sense of identity that Baymax pondered over. Now he thought...

But were these his own thoughts or Hiro's...? Maybe Tadashi's...?

This was the man who had left Baymax with a purpose and a brother in need of it.

He ran his hand over the child's head and he _was_ a child. He was Baymax's patient... and Baymax was Hiro's friend. The white robot looked up at the cold shadows looming over behind the wall divider. He was also Hiro's healthcare companion. Baymax looked down at the boy who could have died. What if his aunt had lost him? The team? What if Hiro had lost his life? Baymax arrived at a decision and laid his face upon his friend.

"I cannot obstruct another's will, but I can no longer justify my presence in your life."

Any attempt to otherwise would be immoral.

To be continued...


	8. The final call

**I.**

Hiro awoke to the feeling that he had been watched over all night, he slid the blue and white striped duvet off and looked around his large bedroom. It was bright and comfortable in it's warmth. Even on Tadashi's side of the room it was peaceful; He sat up and rubbed at his eye. No one was there, but he still felt their presence. The teen smiled and got out of bed to go see his family in his pajamas and bare feet as always.

There was a sharp screech and a black-suited man in a mask slipped inside.

"Hua," Dian's voice came over the re-encrypted signal from their stealth craft.

"I'm in," He whispered. Then told her in Mandarin that no one was in the room.

"The seeds are planted," Her whisper was soft but wickedly excited. "Now we just have to await the blossoming of our little cherry blossom. Have you found the key?"

The Chinese man stood up straight. "Dian, I have to turn on the computer first."

She paused. "Yes, well, there's that."

...

Happy-go-lucky, Hiro slid down the fragile banister and leapt to the base to see there was a high turnout that morning. He noticed his aunt carrying out a tray loaded in all manner of cakes and pastries when a sprinkled doughnut rolled off. Thinking fast, Hiro caught the stray ring and placed it back on his aunt's tray instead of scarfing it down.

Aunt Cass looked at him in surprise.

"Hiro!"

He grinned at her. "Hey, Aunt Cass. Need some help?"

"Oh, uh, no. But uh... how are you feeling?"

The teen shrugged carelessly. " _Great_. I've never felt better, actually."

Cassanda smiled, a little breathless. "Well, that's... great, honey! Um, so..."

"I thought I'd take it easy today," Hiro told her. "Just hang around here."

Such was her reaction that Hiro offered again to help around her store.

"No, no, no. You... just go watch TV or something."

"Actually," Hiro edged towards the back. "Do you mind if I head to the garage...?"

There was something not quite right about that question.

"Sure, Hiro. It's your home, too. You don't have to ask."

The teen smiled, shrugged and headed towards the back.

It was Hiro, Aunt Cass noted as she passed the orders around to the three people in her cafe the day before spring break's end. Oddly enough, most people escaped the city around this time of year. _Hiro looks fine_ , but... She looked after him in concern.

Something just wasn't quite right about a Hiro who noticed things.

 **II**.

The teen ventured into his garage, habitually looking around for his pudgy friend. He didn't see him and figured he was re-charging. _Weird_ , Hiro thought as he got on to see if there were any updates on the theft. _Usually he's_...Then Hiro remembered. It took him six seconds to check and make sure his project's code was still a secret. The flashing green circle made him exhale. Hiro then downloaded the key code directly to his phone and made a back-up on a drive the size of his pinkie nail. Placing both in his pocket and zipping it up, the teen turned around to get his suit and wake up Baymax.

Of course they both had a few _other_ suits around campus...

He wondered why the thought hadn't occurred to him when he re-made Maxie's suit.

 _Boh_! Something cushioned met his face.

Hiro stared at the suit many business men wore. Blinking, he looked up the length of the wearer to find Baymax. His black brows knitted together at the ridiculous-looking bowler hat his friend wore on his head. The three-piece suit barely fit and it was such a bizarre thing that Hiro smiled from inside Baymax's soft folds. He carefully came up.

"Buddy, what'd you doing?" The teen asked. "You should be running recon."

Baymax studied him and then said. "I have taken up a new position as a healthcare insurance agent. It is my new occupation to drive in my rented economy vehicle to a person's residence and offer them questionably qualitative healthcare." He told Hiro.

The teen just blinked. "But if you know it's questionable, why would you sell it?"

"Informing them of a potentially shady business practice while doing so in a polite yet professional manner is a progressive tactic. The potential customer and employer is-,"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Baymax, you _have_ a job. You're a superhero! The team needs you... uh, us. It needs us." He grabbed onto his friend's arm and pulled him towards the open garage. "Come on, this really is getting ridiculous. The city needs all of us."

"Hiro," Baymax gently took the teen's hand and removed it. "I have resigned."

The teen met his eyes. He was truly bewildered now. " _What_?"

Baymax came to place his hands on Hiro's shoulders. "I have spoken with the team and we have reached the conclusion that while the project must be located, we are not operating well enough-," Hiro ripped away from his touch, anger hot in his eyes.

"What are you saying?! _I'm the leader of this team_! We can't leave them two short."

"Hiro, you have suffered a relapse of PTSD. I recommend talking, pleasant activities."

" _I'm fine!_ " The team spat. "I'm not suffering from PT... _what_?"

"You are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder." Baymax held out his hands to him. "I want to recommend treatment for you, Hiro, but as a friend I cannot allow-,"

" _You_ cannot allow me to." Hiro tried standing up taller as he backed away. "Excuse me?! Who do you think you're talking to, Maxie? My brother made you, I rebuilt you."

His incredulity made it sound like a threat.

Baymax stood still. "Are you going to disassemble me, Hiro?" He asked.

Hiro's heart sunk into his stomach and he could clearly hear the wet impact.

"Of course not," he mumbled.

"Are you satisfied with your care?" Baymax again gave him the option.

Hiro realized the robot's words were not meant to hurt him, but help him.

"I... gotta get back into the garage." He bypassed his friend.

"I made you a lunch." Baymax raised his hand.

"I'm not hungry," Hiro sat down, keeping his voice low, and tended to his old lab.

"I cannot eat."

"JUST GO!" The teen pointed furiously and grasped his head.

"Maybe you-,"

Hiro ran back inside and slammed the door.

Baymax sent a text to Aunt Cass that he recommended Hiro see a certified mental health specialist right away before stuffing himself into a tiny car that was a tad bit smaller then the economy car Baymax had rented and drove off to his first clientele.

...

Aunt Cass looked up in shock as Hiro rushed through the foyer and up the stairs back to his room. With her head turned, a figure moved from behind the stairwell and then across the back of her front counter. A black head peered up from the table Aunt Cass was waiting on and delicately removed her Sharp Phone from her apron pocket. When the thirty-four-year-old woman turned back around there was no one left in her store.

"Where's my head these days?" She touched her brow and shook it.

 **III**.

"Guys," Fred stopped mid-leap on top of a building.

The four were trying to track down the disappearance of Baymax and Hiro's four other suits. They were already feeling terrible after texting Baymax and getting his input, to top it all off they were running haphazard tracking down the few students who'd been loitering, like them, around S.F.T. the last couple of days. That and a new semester...

 _It's over._

Words too unbearable, only two of them. It was as if Hiro had spoken them.

Tadashi's mission!

 _Cut out. If you're cutting me out, I want my suits back. It's over._

"It's gotta be a trick." GoGo said.

"Someone's got Hiro's phone. There's _no. way._ Hiro would do this." Wasabi agreed.

"No matter how mad Híro was..."

Fred furrowed his brow and looked up. "I think he thinks we abandoned him."

...

The teen placed his phone down on the dresser and buried his face in his pillow.

"I'm sorry, Tadashi." He whispered.


	9. A pivot off the pivotal

_The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly._ \- Buddha.

 **I.**

A fist rammed down hard on a desk, causing Hua and Dian to cringe in the dark alley where they huddled a few blocks from the Lucky Cat Café. Their uncle - at odds with the width of the phone even turned sideways - moved in closer. His russet eyes flared.

"I _want_ that passkey," Shòu growled like a bear. "And I want it TODAY."

"Please..." Dian gripped the phone desperately, her own eyes wide with fear. "A day."

"You've had three weeks." The man's voice was stone-cold. "Ever since I funded the young Hamada to unknowingly build my shrink ray, I have expected to profit greatly!"

Hua trembled on his uncle's last words.

" _Please,_ " He got out: so much more was on the line if they failed. "Another day. One."

Shòu sucked on his pipe and blew out; the swirling smoke his only visible darkness.

" _One_ day," He lifted a large finger with a ring on it, his silk, mauve suit crinkling. "The two of you fail me again and my brother does not make it to the day's end tomorrow."

When he clicked off, his nephew and niece were reduced to children in the dark.

"We've got to get back there," Hua said in a weak voice.

"Tiān nǎ." Dian's voice was scared, too, but she turned to her partner. "Never mined that, you must take to locating the team's homes and check there. I will keep up the surveillance on the boy himself." She sighed heavily. "Other measures are probable."

 **II**.

"Are you sure that's what Dr. Kita said?" Honey Lemon asked Aunt Cass.

The two were modelling a pair of kimono jackets on giant, 180-degree screens.

Cassandra sighed. "Honey Lemon, I'm just not sure anymore." She looked over at her nephew sitting behind a support beam and then smiled waveringly at her. "I know all of you offered to give back the suits, he refused, then he wouldn't say anything to his doctor..." She did not want to say what the next step would be as she turned around.

"Is there anything else that could help?" Honey mirrored her.

The brown-haired woman frowned at her back end. "Somehow, I just don't think so."

...

Hiro sat impassively on the floor of the department store, an ovate bar of soap in his hand. He carved away at it with a plastic spork until it resembled two dots and a line running through. The teenager paused, smiled, then cuddled the soap bar lovingly to his face.

" _Fueling your hallucinations makes me a better healthcare companion_." It said in an echo.

"Maxie!"

An elderly man prodded his pointy cane into one of many Baymax soap bars littering the floor. " _Look kid_." The teen complied, took the ruined Baymax and slid it in it's box.

"Baymax used to have a box." He moped.

"Oh, get a grip."

A screen overhead changed and Hiro saw a familiar white form circle-wave in front of a huge car lot. This actually made Hiro stand up with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Hello, I am Baymax. Your personal car sales specialist. Here at Honest Hitachi's car and truck wholesale lot, you will get a questionably qualitative vehicle for a potentially overpriced value. I would like to marginally recommend checking your local Nick fax and Judy Blue Book value." There was some rustling and Baymax was dragged away.

"It would appear I am now being placed at the front of the lot with a sign."

Shouts and panic came from outside. Hiro perked up as police cars zoomed by loudly.

All else was forgotten; even his aunt and whoever else she was talking to.

The teen dove into the kimono rack and hit his speed dial.

"Fred, Wasabi, Honey, GoGo, there's an emergency on Wen and Lotus." His shoulders fell and his eyes widened. Maybe he did have a problem. The others texted back that they were on it. Hiro closed his eyes and bowed his head. He looked outside the rack and saw Honey pulling Aunt Cass out the door with her, she looked at him confusedly.

Hiro nodded and ran after them with kimonos dragging along at his feet.

"Get back here and get this soap in your mouth!" He heard a shout as others gasped.

The teen was almost out the door when he noticed Baymax ringing up a pair of shoes, pausing, then doing a price scan with his hand. Hiro looked between his team going after whatever the threat was and a placidly working Baymax. Frantic, he threw up his hands and cut in front of the tall woman standing in line. She threw up her hands.

"Baymax, we gotta book. There's a-,"

"Possible DUI in pursuit, a young man and woman of Asian descent heading towards the Lotus and Sakura intersection." The obvious was asked. "I have downloaded my long-range scanner into my new profession chip: A department store clerk. I will also still act as coordinates and emergency dispatch, people finder and all non-physical-,"

Hiro took his friend's face in his hands. "Baymax, they _need_ us." he stressed.

" _You_ need to let go of my best employee!

Baymax was gentle. "Hiro, I am also choosing to leave my health protocol defunct as of 2-hours-ago. I will no longer give advice as my care has not been sufficient in the long-run of your recovery." Hiro let him go then. "It is best we part ways, my friend."

"But you're my healthcare companion." Was the best he could do.

"At a different time, perhaps, when I believe my recommendations will be effective."

" _You're holding up the line_!" The woman spluttered.

Hiro turned on his heel slowly and walked away from the store, the chaos.

His brow knitted and he looked over his shoulder. Someone else was helping the team to put out a smoking window. _No, they replaced me_? Hiro shook his head and the red eyes flashed in his mind. He shut his real ones and ran home. His aunt couldn't do it!

But, then wasn't _that_ going against what Hiro had said?

That you _could_ be much more than you were. Did that mean you could choose?

...

When Hiro arrived home it was late day. He walked up the long driveway and into the empty garage. S.F.T. started up in less then a week even though most of the schools and universities started back up tomorrow. Hiro saw his shadow rise away from him and fill the corners of his old workshop with darkness. He looked about them for a moment before remembering when his friends had come to his aid; and Hiro finally saw that the only way he could help was by building two replacements for them. If he and Baymax weren't there, Hiro would do his part and give them additional members.

He squared his shoulders before going to work drawing up plans.

To be continued...


	10. Hiro's awakening: Pt 1 of 2

**I.**

"Morning, Aunt Cass." Hiro said as he past his aunt the next morning, kissed her on the cheek, then grabbed up an apple and headed back towards his lab. She noticed.

"Hiro, aren't you forgetting someone?"

Baymax straightened up from taking some blueberry muffins out of the oven.

" _You're right_ ," Hiro brightened. "Good morning, Mochi." he scratched his quizzical cat.

"Hiro Hamada!"

"Morning, Bay." The teen past him without a second glance.

This hurt Cassandra more than she would like to admit.

"Did Hiro often ignore Tadashi when he was angered?"

She wiped down the last of the newly-tiled tables Baymax had done for her last night.

"No," she said in disappointment.

...

"I gotta make it up to everyone," Hiro said in a determined voice. He clicked on some of the scrapped designs for Baymax's suit. The hematic color of the first caused him to avert his eyes and bring the shade down to it's darkest red; a deep, blackish color.

When he looked up he grinned.

"Excellent." Hiro said and he applied the swatch to the now Gothic-looking robot.

 _I should have done this in the first place._ A fully-designed battle bot superhero!

If Hiro had any misgivings, they weren't known to him. He placed his original chip into the back of **his** machine's neck, picked up a standard controller and brought the tall invention to life... so to speak. It moved, flexed and flashed it's pointed features for it's creator. Hiro chuckled and held out his arms in a hero's pose. The bot copied him.

BOW!

A hole blew through the roof and sunlight streamed in. Hiro went slack-jawed.

His limbless creation blinked up at the sun, then flew away. He turned sour as some mortar fell on his head and called the machine back by pressing down on his remote.

...

The teen next moved onto a smaller, blue robot. Hiro adjusted the circular, knight-like armor of his bot and then set it down in front of his old, black battle bot. Next he took off his shoes and socks with his feet, picked up a second controller with his toes, then went to 'work' and let the two bots fight. Hiro went into a two-player set-of-mind and had his new bot anticipate the moves of his old one and block them in a fast, frenzied motion. He grinned and nodded as he picked up speed but grimaced when his newest bot tried ripping his old one apart. Hiro tried re-gaining control when he met it's eyes.

They were tiny and red.

Aunt Cass and Baymax, in his black, Waffle Hut uniform, peered around the partially opened garage door to find Hiro running around in circles with his blue bot chasing him and his old bot clinging to his ankle. The miniature machine cornered him back against the wall. Hiro was shaking as he hastily used the black bot to dissemble the other rogue one. "Gah!" He gasped, throwing his controller at it and straightening up.

"Hiro," Baymax walked over to him, Aunt Cass followed close behind.

"Oh, hey guys." The teen stood up casually and used his shoe to conceal the blue bot behind his leg. "What's shakin'?" His aunt came up and felt his forehead. " _Aunt Cass_."

"I think Hiro creating a new superhero bot is a practical idea."

They both turned to him.

"However, I recommend an auto shut-down feature for a more battle-designed robot."

Hiro grinned and held out both fists to him.

Baymax blinked. "I, must arrive promptly my first day." He shuffled towards his car.

The teen dropped his arms and looked at his aunt.

Cassandra folded her own and raised a brow at him.

"When did Baymax get his driver's licence?" Hiro asked.

She dropped her arms, too.

...

Taking a quick breath, Hiro used a pair of chopsticks to put the finishing touches on his newest superhero bot... it was half the size of his pinkie finger. He was grinning again as ideas flooded his mind: An entire army of thumb-sized superhero robots! It was _genius_. "No," Hiro folded his arms and sighed in self-satisfaction. " _I'm_ a genius."

Maybe he didn't even need to get that invention back with this-,

Red eyes the size of specks flashed up at him.

Hiro was screaming as it spun him around rapidly by the pinkie.

"Whoa! _Whoa_." Wasabi suddenly appeared and planted his shoe down on it. "Hiro," he helped him to his feet. "Dude, I don't know if death-by-tiny-bot is the way to go, bro."

"Funny," Hiro breathed, but met his eyes in acknowledgment. "What's up, Wasabi?"

"Whole lotta nothin'." He admitted as he stepped back and wheeled Baymax's old suit up. "The team and I managed to scrounge-," Hiro tossed a wrench at the chest cavity.

"Dude!"

"What'd you _bring_ that here for?" The teen asked, going pale and sweaty.

"Hey, hey, it's okay..." Wasabi approached him gently.

"You're doing it again!" Hiro nearly shouted.

This made him pull back. " _What_?"

"Treating me like a kid! Look, I appreciate everything you and the team do, but-,"

"Really?" Wasabi cut him off. "You do? Considering that we've covered for you for an entire month, you get us worked up thinking we're disbanding. We stood by you, and now _you_ think you can treat us like this. Like we never tried to help you or anything."

Hiro's eyes widened. "Wasabi..."

"No, kid. Okay, fine. _Kid._ Because that's how you're acting."

The two sized each other up. Hiro stood in defiance.

Wasabi sighed and gave him an ultimatum,

"You gotta get your problems under control. We need a leader we can rely on and if you aren't it, well, maybe we should find another." His sadness became evident and Hiro saw that Wasabi looked at him like... like he was Tadashi. Wasabi saw this, too.

"There's nothing _wrong_ with me." Hiro insisted. His eyes and tone said different.

"Maybe it's time you started considering what you really want to do, Hiro." Wasabi backed out of the garage. "Instead of what Tadashi or Maxie or even Cass wants you to do, think about what _you_ want to do. Not just to get by, but really want to do Hiro."

"Thanks, Bi." Hiro said softly.

Wasabi's mouth tugged up at the side and he touched his fist with a bow.

Hiro bowed back.

The teen walked over to sit by his computer as the sun set behind the San Fransoyko cityscape. Hiro studied the transparent glass of his monitor and saw the light hit the side of the collected armor perfectly. His eyes rounded and he turned to see the large silhouette of what was once Baymax. Hiro considered what Wasabi had said and took a roll of green tape from behind the other ones Baymax had been using. He pulled the strip out and thought more, Hiro then looked up at the first-aid kit tacked to the wall.

It had been there since Tadashi and Hiro had built their lab together six years earlier.

A smile lit Hiro's face and he looked down at the tape in his hands.

"Hiro." Baymax waddled up to him in a gourmet chef's hat.

"Maxie." The teen jumped up and smiled at his friend's white ensemble. "You don't need to worry about me anymore. Momentai... as I remember someone saying, I dunno." he shook his head at the vague memory. "It's what my bots are lacking."

"I need you to dissemble me."

Hiro paused.

Baymax blinked.

"Uh... okay, um, have you just lost your mind, Maxie?"

The robot didn't answer.

"I know why my bots are so aggressive and freaky, it's because they're not like you."

"Hiro," Baymax said squarely again. "I need you to dissemble me, because I believe there is a surveillance chip implanted in my body. Even possibly on my suit." It took half a moment, then Hiro had his phone's light on checking every nook and corner of the suit Wasabi had wheeled up. "I believe it was implanted in the folds of my neck."

The teen looked up and then leapt over immediately to inspect him. Baymax did not crane like most people did. He instead took Hiro by his underarms like he'd done that first day when Hiro came back and set him down on his feet. Hiro touched Baymax's big arms. "There is _no. way._ I'm taking you apart, Maxie. I might be upset, but, I..."

He held out his arms to him, but then Hiro recalled something else from that day:

Aunt Cass had gone without a hug from her only living nephew.

"Hiro, my sole purpose is to protect and provide care for the sick and injured. If I am unable do either, and I am aptly sufficient at minimum wage positions and most high-paying jobs I would merely need to download information to succeed at, there is no other reason for my being here." Hiro looked sick. "You look unwell, I can scan you but it may provide a video link to whomever is targeting us." He really looked at Hiro.

"Baymax." The boy's voice was weak.

"Why do you need me, Hiro? If I am not a healthcare companion to you."

"I didn't say you weren't, _you_ said you _weren't_."

But why? Even if Hiro had relapsed, why was it affecting Baymax so much?

"I nearly harmed you."

"You're my friend." Hiro fought him. "There was an accident, but... I'm _fine_."

"But do you need me?"

The teen felt his shoulders drop. _You didn't bring him back just to end things like this._

 _You didn't, he's your friend._ Someone fought inside of Hiro. "Is this what you want?"

 _No, no it's not! I_ do _need you._

Baymax seemed to think a moment:

"I believe Tadashi's chip may have been compromised." He explained.

Hiro shook his head grimly. "I'll take you apart, but I'm not destroying you."

"Even if it means I could have been infected with a virus... I would hurt people, Hiro."

The teen shook his head even harder. "I'll find whoever did this to you." he vowed.

Baymax laid a hand on his shoulder. "For the time being, you must disable me."

Hiro faced away from him and nodded. He didn't know where his friend had gone, but he was shocked to feel Baymax's arms around him. Tears fell from his eyes and went down his Maxie's round arm. "I don't know, Baymax. I'm trying. I just want you to be normal," he turned and looked up with wet eyes. "Just tell me why I feel this, Maxie."

"My previous diagnosis was that post-traumatic stress-,"

"No, I mean _as a friend_." He insisted.

"Hiro," Baymax was gentle, but Hiro didn't feel condescended to. "Whoever has stolen your project has also stolen the hero inside of you. What peace of mind you had is no more and I cannot help you find it this time because I am the one who has stolen it."

 **III**.

Yīngxióng, China...

"So the robot knows the encryption code." Shou thrummed his fingers atop the metal desk. "And he also knows to block my spy's signal." he sighed roughly. "But what to do with you, brother." The man turned from the morning light that was being blocked through the long shades and stared at a bound man. "Your children have failed you."

"No." Hasaki Hamada looked up, beaten and bruised. "I will hijack the robot and give you the access code. But only if you release my wife and I." His big brother gave him an expectant frown. "And leave my children alone; our young nephew Hiro included."

Shou choked on a laugh at this last one. "Done."

The half-Japanese man in his tattered white dress shirt was thrust forward.

"And Hasaki..." The large man placed his pipe down hard, "this is your **final** chance."

To be continued...


	11. Hiro's awakening: Pt 2 of 2

**I.**

There were some mornings in the Hamada household where Hiro welcomed a certain degree of anonymity... this was one of those mornings. With everything about him appearing normal albeit his exclusively covert mannerisms, the teen crept out of his room around 5 am, slipped into the tennis shoes Baymax or Aunt Cass had set by his door and then snuck down the hall past his aunt's room to the stair's banister. He grinned broadly, remembering Baymax still in his charger. _Home free,_ Hiro thought.

If his best friend wasn't in on it, the fourteen-year-old rarely got away with it. He started to make his way downstairs when his screwdriver appeared before him. This wasn't that unusual, Hiro was used to having things brought to him without asking.

"Thanks," he took the flat laid tool.

A chill went through him and he felt every single hair on his body stand up.

"Hiro."

Turning around revealed Baymax with his head glowing in the dark.

"Baymax!" Hiro said with a mix of elation and horror.

"Mmm..." His aunt groaned in the other room.

"You were going to dissemble me, remember?"

"Oh... uh, yeah, well. Baymax..."

"I do not believe you want them locating your passkey to the shrink ray through me."

Hiro looked at him; he did have a point and Baymax did send things to Hiro to cheer him up through the day... and lately he hadn't been. The teen thought for a moment.

"Didn't... you want to finish up those sushi rolls and eggplant crêpes?"

"I finished everything at 3 am, changed Mochi's cat litter at 3:15, recharged my batteries at 3:30." Hiro chuckled at the unintended joke. "And made all necessary preparations for my dismemberment in your garage, I was just coming to wake you."

The teen felt his face go pale.

"Although, it may be best if one of our teammates..."

"No, no. I'll do it. I just..."

"Your anxiety levels are increasing, I should call over Honey or GoGo."

"Or Wasabi?"

"He preferred not to do so."

"I will... I just-," Hiro was at the foot of the stairs. "I gotta use the bathroom."

"Aunt Cass does not have a restroom for customers and your urinary..."

Hiro was already across the kitchen and hightailing it to his lab.

Baymax blinked, then his eyes gave a scrambled signal and he shook his head from the habit of watching Hiro. "I have been violated." The robot said. He checked on his recorded dialogue and discovered that everything he had said in the last 12 hours was his own except for the parts where he had told Hiro to dissemble him. Whomever had shot him on the mountainside was polarizing the same signal Baymax had relayed... it meant that the hacker could get Hiro to dissemble Baymax or even worst! It was true that if taking Baymax apart would help Hiro, he would do so without hesitation, but if it meant that someone could harm Hiro he'd never allow it; he had to warn him now.

...

From the inside of Hiro's room, a shadow rose from the corner where Baymax's red charger - now painted black - sat. Hua looked down at the controller he had stolen from Hiro's lab disparagingly. A limber contortionist, the man had successfully fooled his half-cousin Hiro last night and was prepared to override his other cousin's green healthcare chip. Hua Yu did not remember the times he and Tadashi had been paired together as young boys to play, nor did he really care about anyone other than Dian...

And his father.

"You must grow up someday." He understood what he was doing and it's implications, he knew that the knowledge of his crimes made it even worst. The man exhaled and moved his thumb over a green button that would erase the dormant nursing protocol.

A robot with free will? Inexcusable. No one was there to make life easier for Hua and his older sister Dian when they were Hiro's age, why should he have mercy on a boy who selfishly disregarded his own family? Orders were orders. Hua pushed the button.

It flashed once, then faded out.

He smiled and prepared to use not only Baymax, but then have him create an entire-,

The light flashed green again.

"Wha... wha..." Hua tried again to erase Baymax's personality, memories, feelings...

It continued to stay a steady green.

 _"Lā shǐ!.!.!"_

...

Baymax waddled down as fast as his legs would take him, tripping and turning in on himself to reach Hiro. He knew that he only had so much battery life left after he had blocked out the intense hacking, he knew Hiro was very fast and he needed to be just as fast, Baymax knew Tadashi had intended him for Hiro but that he and Hiro weren't always compatible, that they almost never saw eye-to-eye outside a mission, that the teen was scared, and anxious, and unknowingly casting Baymax aside in an attempt to heal and grow; but Baymax would **not** be overridden until his Hiro knew the truth.

The garage door was open, the parts left out were the ones Baymax had unknowingly prepped for his own demise, and like the symbiotic nature in which Hiro and Baymax shared when they were superheroes, Hiro and his trauma had decided what was best.

All else had been left behind.

 **II**.

Assured by text that none of his team was following through with Baymax's ridiculous requests, Hiro applied the last of Heromax's paint by hand. It was such a nice day out at school that he had opted to create his new robot on the grounds outside his lab. A tranquil mood befell Hiro as he stepped back on the verdant grass to admire the dark green, robust robot. The side of his mouth went down as he wished it was his Maxie.

Well, now Hiro would have the good-nature of his friend in a robot _designed_ to battle.

He took a peaceful breath and furled up his arms. The self-automated robot blinked just like Maxie and copied him. A fleeting sense of betrayal came and went when the machine did not go berserk. Hiro grinned and wheeled a lithium ion lawnmower up to his robot; the solar-powered ones having disappeared along with the suits from the storage sheds. Hiro didn't think too hard about it as even Baymax didn't know any of the passkeys to the extra suits. He let this go as he demonstrated mowing the grass.

"See, we'll start with something simple and taught with care." Hiro said.

He stood aside and held out his hands to it.

Heromax rigidly went to the ground and started plucking pieces of grass out.

"No, wait! Wait. Use the mower." He started it up and moved the handle towards it.

The emerald robot jerked the blade out of the mower and started to razor it instead.

Hiro sighed and turned the transparent blue mower off.

"Well, I mean, that's something. But... why don't we just skip to a simple hug?"

Hiro held out his arms and smiled nervously.

"Hug!" The robot turned to Hiro and picked him up.

"Now _gently_. There's no need to...chaaaa!"

The depressurizing belt under Hiro's shirt worked wonders when a besuited Baymax would occasionally forget he was still armored. Hiro grunted and tried to pull free but the hug was getting dangerously close to a bone-crushing one. He spluttered out the automated shutdown, "Xamyab!" Hiro's friends rushed up to him as he squirmed out.

"Dude!" Wasabi freed his feet while Honey and GoGo anchored the bot's arms back.

Fred eyed the mower nervously, tapping his still trapped fingers.

"Hiro... uh, we're you using this lawn mower and if no, can I use it?"

"Guys, what're you doing?" He faced them in their suits. "You can't just go running around school with battle armor on." They all looked at Heromax. "It's either him or the three killer robots from yesterday." Why they wore their suits on campus dawned on Hiro and he ran to get his own blue suit sitting beside the paint applicator outside.

"Dude, what're you doing?" Wasabi asked incredulously.

"And you do know all of your other machinery was swiped, right?" GoGo pointed out.

"Huh?!" Hiro approached the open-circle window to find almost everything gone...

Tadashi's hat lay on the ground.

"My God." A suit-donned Hiro shook his head and put on his helmet. "Let's go," he headed towards Heromax. "HM's a little shaky, but he's got all of Baymax's powers."

The team just stood there staring at him.

"What'd you waiting for?" He climbed on top of the bot. "I know why you're here and that you wouldn't let anything happen to Maxie, so let's go. Orih." It booted back up.

The four looked at each other.

"Hiro," Honey removed her helmet. "Since you've refused to get help _or_ help us..."

Fred looked down. "We're removing you from the team."

GoGo was looking determinedly in the direction of the thieves as Wasabi faced Hiro.

"I know that, that's why I'm making it up to you." Hiro gestured. "So let's go."

"We're not doing this with you, without Baymax." Wasabi put it another way.

"What?!"

"Sans Max-o no go-o." Fred said.

"Hiro, don't you care about Baymax anymore? At all?" Honey entreated.

"Of course I do, but we're not a set match. We're..."

Wasabi stood beside Honey. "When you decide where your heart is, let us know."

Big Hero 6 left without two of it's core members.

Hiro looked at the sudden green monstrosity below him and leapt back into his lab.

"Why?! Why can't I figure this out? Does Baymax replace Tadashi? No. Does me being gone for a few weeks give my team licence to boot me out...?" Something nagged at Hiro; like he was missing something obvious. He looked down and saw Tadashi's hat.

Eyes widening, Hiro walked over and picked it up. _I didn't sacrifice myself._

I _didn't do anything_. "It was all Baymax." Hiro realized.

He knew the reasons why he acted like a hero, but not why he should continue to.

To be continued...

 **A/N:** Two more chapters, kk? Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it! ;)


	12. The beginning of the end

**I.**

It was one of those evenings when a kid returns home with so much to think about but with none of the crucial energy to process any of it. Hiro rubbed at his forehead as he placed his bag down and checked around languidly to see if all was in it's place; without someone to interact with, Hiro didn't have the motivation to really care. He felt around the outside of his jacket and the shape of the tiny drive met his fingertips.

The teen breathed in and out before walking over to the partition separating his and Baymax's half of room... it wasn't that Baymax insisted on it, but Hiro didn't like the idea of his scrawny butt being on anyone's radar. He came to a small mauve mat and took off his shoes and socks with his toes. Hiro then took a seat in front of a picture of his brother when he was fourteen, a _rikka_ tree arrangement and lavender incense.

He looked around and then took a long match from under the mat; nothing aside from these few things remained on Tadashi's side of the room. Studiously, Hiro held the long stick to the side of his left shoe and stuck out his tongue as he concentrated.

He gave it one flick and a tiny spark flew out.

"HIRO HAMADA, ARE YOU PLAYING WITH MATCHES?!"

The teen freaked out and fumbled in his haste to hide the evidence under the mat. He then settled for taking his phone out and placing it face down beside his legs. Instead of sitting with them crossed, Hiro shifted around so that he was on his knees. He held his head down and stared at the floor below Tadashi's frame, but Hiro couldn't speak.

His phone pinged and he used his thumb to cancel it.

Finally, he looked up a bit to meet his brother's eyes.

"What'd I do, Tadashi? I'm starting to think this isn't about me missing you or being upset with Baymax, I think it's me. I..." he hung his head again. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do!" Hiro sighed. "Am I suppose to follow your lead forever? Am I _ever_ getting out of your shadow? Every time I try to do something good, it backfires."

The boy in the picture never moved, never responded.

"All I've been doing is messing up in front of everyone, letting them down, the city..."

Hiro looked up at the ornate mirror Aunt Cass had hung up on the wall; it had once belonged to Hiro and Tadashi's mother. Slowly, the teen got up and walked over to it.

His hair barely cleared the surface and his eyebrows jumped.

The space above his head where someone was supposed to stand made him turn. He saw no one there but he certainly remembered the last thing his team had told him:

 _When you find your heart._

Hiro took the heavy, gilded frame down and looked at his reflection speculatively.

"I know this is me," he said. But somehow his ocher eyes were unfamiliar.

They weren't red... just, unsure. It was like he didn't know who he was.

A knock came at the door and he looked up.

"I hope you're not handling Chihiro's good frame without Baymax, Hiro."

Chihiro's son then looked at himself again and knew what he had to upgrade.

"Here ya go," Hiro handed Aunt Cass the mirror and pecked her on the cheek.

He then grabbed up his bag and headed out the door just as someone rose from the charger, swiped up his phone and was out the window before Aunt Cass could come in and assess what her nephew was up to. The screen revealed Baymax as the last call.

...

Hua leapt from building to building, the phone and subsequently the passkey in his hand. The twenty-two-year-old almost grinned as he thought how he had outsmarted a _genius_ like Hiro. Knowledge of something didn't make you wise... or practical. Well, Hua Shou Yu may not have been either of those things and he may not be able to get Baymax, but he was going to be a hero in his family; that was all that mattered now.

"Stop!"

A man in dreadlocks and sea foam green attire held out his hand.

In the waning sunlight the Chinese man did just that. He pulled off his mask and an eerie look of recognition came to his halter's face. A girl in yellow blocked off his left escape route and the monster-suited one jumped up on his right; his fingers were in a Chinese finger trap under his suit's claws. Hua lowered his brows and turned west.

A pretty blonde girl in pink was at his back.

He lowered his shoulders and breathed easier. She tilted her head forward in warning.

"Give us back the chip," the black man in front told him, holding out his hand.

"Am I really suppose to be scared of you?" He lowered his voice to diminish his accent as they all stood in the afterlight. "I've seen you're interactions and my uncle knows from talks with Robert Callaghan you are not a threat." They all looked at him like a fire had been lit. "Shou Yu knows many." Hua explained. "And it is this knowledge he desires." The man willingly showed them the swiped phone. "And all that will entail..."

GoGo had it out of his hand in one second, Honey had his feet bound.

Wasabi was now two feet from him and Fred was pulling at his fingers.

"Hey, be a bro and tell me how to get this off, will ya?"

"You're going to tell us where and why you took all of that boy's things." GoGo said.

The man looked at her and nodded; Hua always noticed who was in charge.

"Your _boy_ is going to die," he said haltingly, allowing their reactions to set in. "That is why my father will live. When Shou Yu killed Taku and Chihiro Hamada, he never had the intention of letting his nephews live well beyond the point of their use... Do what you will with me, I have already sent the passkey to my sister for safekeeping." Their looks of horror made him nod. "San Fransoyko will be the first to go, young heroes."

 **II**. - _The next morning..._

Cassandra grit her teeth in quiet terror as she heard the heavy sounds of footsteps; it wasn't Baymax, he had gone back to his charger in the garage last night. Against her better judgement, she turned around and saw Hiro clamping down in a red-and-blue uniform. He wore simple black tennis shoes and the green lanyard that Hiro would attach a name tag to. The teen smiled even as uncertainty came into her eyes...

And judgement. But Hiro knew this was just because she hadn't expected this.

"Hiro... sweetie, what're you wearing?"

He rubbed the back of his head. "Scrubs," he smiled shyly. "I'm going to be a CNA."

"Excuse me?"

"A... Certified Nursing Assistant."

The disbelief that came to Aunt Cass's face was both comedic and awkward.

"Uh... honey, maybe you should go lie down. Um..."

"I just got my certification last night," he held up a printed copy. Her disbelief turned into true terror. "And since I was never prescribed anything or legally diagnosed with PTSD..." Hiro shrugged. Aunt Cass didn't know what to say to this. "I think this is the best way to help people." He shouldered his backpack, adding to all of this surrealism.

"Honey..." Aunt Cass put her hands on the tops of his arms and looked into his eyes.

Whatever she saw there she couldn't argue with; but Hiro knew it did not make her happy. He sighed and remembered with Wasabi had said. "I'll be back tonight, okay?"

His smile was half-hearted but sincere as he headed out the door without looking at the big white robot that came through the front. Only when Baymax's black dots trailed after him did Hiro look up, smile dejectedly and then walk out the door to the road.

"Hiro?" He looked at his outfit.

"You're judging me, too?" The teen offered.

"What are you doing?" Baymax asked softly.

Hiro held up his paper. "I'll be home late tonight," he said as he caught the trolley.

"But, Hiro, we need to talk!" The robot hustled after him.

"I'm done talking," the teen said firmly, but his eyes lightened. "I'm gonna do what I think will make me a better person... more like you," Baymax stopped. "And Tadashi."

"But you can only... be you."

Hiro didn't hear him. Baymax received a ping and looked down as Aunt Cass came to his side in her black T-shirt and long jeans. They looked at his chest, after Hiro, then at each other. Aunt Cass bowed her head at her feelings of failure and Baymax patted her arm.

"If it makes him happy..."

"There's that and you're gonna ask me to come with you again, right?"

"Temporarily, yes. Although I have resigned both positions, if my friends need me..."

"Let's go," Cassandra took his arm and pulled him toward the cafe.

...

Hiro looked up from the trolly's end as it went over the hill.

Baymax was watching after him, raising his hand in a wiggling finger wave.

The teen tried, he really did try to wave and "Ba-lalalala."

But he merely turned his head and ignored Baymax as he disappeared into the house.

To be continued...


	13. No one but you: Pt 1 of 3

**I.**

Hiro arrived outside of the San Fransokyo Haven Health Center; he knew at some time or another there had been some religious aspect to it, but that was long ago. Besides, Hiro had passed on theology as a minor. The teen swallowed hard as he tried mustering his _compassion_ for his newly chosen line of work and mounted the stairs. If this was what it took to make him a hero again, then he was going to do it.

"Hiro?"

The teen turned to see Alistair Krei approaching him with his assistant.

"Uh... hey." He lingered at the second step, unsure how he felt towards the two.

"You're missing out on another mission?" The man said.

"I'm no longer with the team," Hiro answered lamely.

Krei and his assistant exchanged those looks of concern that instantly irritated Hiro.

"Was there something you wanted, Krei?" He said more bluntly.

Krei turned to his assistant, she cleared her throat.

"Hiro, we were on our way to a press conference with the mayor and Big Hero-,"

"I'm not a part of the team anymore." Hiro repeated as he raised his hand.

"So what are you?" the assistant asked skeptically.

"I'm... in a new line of work."

"A sushi-server?" Krei raised a brow at his uniform.

"A healthcare companion," He corrected proudly. "Well, aid... to be more precise."

The assistant tried again:

"There's a stealth team using retro-fitted forms of Baymax's armor to steal, Hiro."

He shook his head. "That's not my problem."

"Some of it has been Krei's own financed technology."

"That's even more not my problem."

Krei looked at him in disappointment.

"It's over, okay? I did my part and the team has moved on."

He hadn't forgotten the last time this man had been _disappointed_ in him.

"Really?" Krei said as Hiro kept walking up the stairs. "Since when does a hero turn his back on someone who needs him, even when that person has his own problems."

The pair resumed their walk to San Fransoyko's city square.

Hiro had to force himself not to cover his heart; it wasn't because it was beating fast from anxiety or fear, it was because the stab of guilt might leave his hand blood-red.

 **II**.

"No Number One?" The white-bearded mayor turned to Big Hero 6.

A tall, blue-suited woman climbed down from atop the normal-suited Baymax.

"Just me," Aunt Cass smiled.

Reporters and citizens alike gathered in the city square.

"We have exhausted all leads, sir." Baymax informed the man. "All clues lead to the man known as Mr. Yu and yet Chinese legal customs prevent a swift apprehension."

GoGo and Honey looked at each other at that last word, Fred played with his fingers.

"A public appeal is our best shot at bringing forward informants." Wasabi added.

"The more proof the better." Aunt Cass smiled nervously.

Fred, GoGo, Wasabi and Honey knew the truth; Shou Yu had possibly called for most of the Hamada familys' deaths and Robert Callaghan might have been an operative acting on orders. But like Baymax had said, without any proof they could do nothing.

As Krei and several other wealthy business men who had gotten robbed from came to stand with the small gathering, the sight of a black limousine pulling up blatantly beside the long podium brought everyone to attention. The police force and Big Hero 6 all braced themselves as a Chinese butler walked around to the side and pulled the door open for a black overcoat and silk, plum undershirt-wearing man. Most of them were wondering who this man was except for the four wealthiest tycoons in the city.

"Shou Yu." Krei muttered in a weak voice.

"That is improbable," Baymax turned to him. "His online profile differs greatly."

"His public persona's a fake." The man whispered quickly.

"Isn't his job done?" GoGo pointed out. "It's been hours since the last theft."

"And we've already apprehended his two field agents." Honey Lemon spoke up.

"Junior agents," Alistair countered, his face going pale. "He recruits the world's top agents for himself, family friends and close relatives for personal missions. If this is the man behind the string of hi-tech robberies, even you six can't hope to stop him."

...

"Open wide, please." Hiro smiled tightly as he spooned some pureed yams into an old lady's mouth. She smacked her lips appreciatively and Hiro tried being pleasant.

If this was the rewarding part, it wasn't sinking in just yet.

"You oughta!" A scrawny, hunched old man made his way into the lady's room.

"It's Hamada, Mr. O'Connell, and I'll be right there, sir."

"It ain't right." The man garbled out as he headed down the hall. "In my grandpap's day, World War ll and ain't anything better, we nuked them Japs as soon as..." Hiro felt the spoon fall from his hand as orange gunk got all over apricot-colored hair. Her tongue poked out and she tried to lick it up as another light came on from next door.

 _Boing!_

...

"Alistair," Shou Yu said as he hulked up the stairs with the help of his butler.

" 'Yu?' " Aunt Cass wondered softly. Where had she heard that name before?

"Shou Yu." Krei flicked his lapels into place.

"I came to hear your conference." The man smiled so exactly as a mob boss would.

"We don't want any trouble." Wasabi stepped forward flanked by GoGo and Baymax.

Brown eyes so familiar it hurt to look at them, so red in their chestnut glow that the entire assembly froze as he turned to them. "Just _what_ do you plan on doing to me?"

No one said anything.

"What course of action can you take against a blameless, faultless gentleman as I?"

They couldn't.

Shou Yu surveyed the crowd, searching amidst the volatile faces for something else.

"I think you're affected the most, yòunǚ." his eyes went to GoGo. She bristled. "Call it a hunch, but I've seen fear reflected enough in the eyes of those who work for me. You've seen what a Hamada can do under pressure and I know what your Hiro is as well capable of." They braced for a confession. A wicked smile broke across his face.

" _What did you do to my nephew?!_ " Aunt Cass screamed.

His grin grew more wicked as the more seasoned of the team ascertained that the police had emptied the square of civilians. Baymax turned to Cassandra to calm her.

"Violence provoked by..."

" _What did you do to my nephew_?" Cassandra's quieted voice was steel.

The red in Shou Yu's eyes flashed. "Which one?" he whispered sinisterly.

Cassanda leapt down from the robot and tried to charge him herself.

"Get him! STOP HIM."

Honey held her back.

"You knew!" She accused the girl. "You knew who did this to Tadashi?! To Hiro?"

"Híro is alive."

" _Tadashi_ is _not_!"

"Look!" Fred indicted with his stuck claws.

Black helicopters and stealth crafts carrying large pieces of stolen machinery arrived all around the city square. Shou Yu had already climbed back into his limo and was on his way out. Panting heavily, Cassandra realized what Hiro had endured; it didn't matter what he had kept from her or what she'd been put through. This was her _son_.

"We have to stop this thing." She took charge. The team looked at her. "If the six of us are divided too evenly, we're outmatched. Wasabi, Honey, you both take offense on the ground. GoGo, you take the middle ground. Fred, Baymax and I will take to the sky. We need to keep this thing from being built." They smiled at her in surprise.

She tried unsuccessfully to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. "Soccer captain."

Honey grinned and punched her hand.

"Break!" They all shouted and went to work.

"Fred, you may want to remove your toy. These pieces will require dual dexterity."

Fredzilla turned to Baymax. "It's cool, Max. Hiro taught me toetexterity anyways."

...

"You want me to take _what_ from _where_?" Hiro eyed the sheeted patient.

"Aren't you the genius who was ready for floor work in one day?"

"Well, yeah, simple manual protocol. Nothing to it."

"Okay," the uniformed man smiled wryly at him. "Now apply what you've learned."

"With my hands?" Hiro raised them as if surrendering.

"No, with your toes."

"Heh-heh, uh...?"

"Clamp down on the colostomy bag and go empty it in the toilet." The seasoned aid told him. As often happened, Hiro looked up and longed to see Baymax. He needed to hear his compassionate-, "It's not hard, Hiro. Like throwing a coffee filter away."

The teen lifted the sheet up and saw brown liquid swimming around in a clear pouch.

"Aids always get queasy the first time," the blonde man started texting. "Just hold your breath until it's over." Hiro delicately placed an oversized blue clip down on the tubing and inhaled deeply as he followed proper procedure. "Oh, did I mention you should probably be wearing gloves?" This made him freeze up. "Whoa, chunk city..."

Hiro collapsed.

...

Cassandra, Baymax and Fred - who was as uncannily dexterious with his clawed toes as he professed to be - easily took out the helicopters. Baymax made certain that it was all with minimal injury to the humans; he needn't have bothered, they all glided away in wingsuits. GoGo had disabled several unarmed stealth crafts while they had been attempting to right themselves in order to flip-fly away and Wasabi and Honey held off any attempts to construct a base by fending off black-suited pursuers back-to-back. It was a lengthy, systematic battle, but one they had no trouble with. The idea that this was too easy gradually dawned on them as they slowly looked up from more-then-even numbers. All had been cleared as a long, pointed machine they'd all been too distracted to notice took aim; the eleven aerial cranes used were dots now.

"It is the shrink ray." Baymax said from their own airborne advantage.

"Only it's being amplified by that machine." GoGo also noted, clinging to a flagpole.

Green swirls of energy rose out like a plasma lamp.

"It's charging!" Aunt Cass exclaimed.

"All of San Fransoyko." Wasabi said as he and Honey rushed at it.

The rounded tip throbbed a ghastly, dark green as it was aimed towards the tallest, metal-based building in all of the city; for once not being owned by Alistair Krei. It wasn't hard to figure out what the purpose of the building would be for as they all rushed to disable it. A pulsating light formed at the end and nearly ripped through the city when something fast and darker red then Baymax's new suit stole the ray.

Big Hero 6 watched as a robotic dragon man complete with eyes and teeth jetted to their side. The entire team was ready to rejoice and embrace Hiro when two Baymax spare suits, Heromax and a dragon-remodeled black bot made by Hiro assembled in rigid formation at the base of the growth ray. Big Hero 6 once again had to face off against inventions made by Hiro being used for evil; but they knew they could do it.

They had their hero back.

To be continued...

 **A/N** : This is a three-part finale. More soon!


	14. No one but you: Pt 2 of 3

_The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi_

 **I.**

The crimson design of Hiro's new suit had a face that reminded most of a Chinese New Year's Dragon. He stood between Baymax and Wasabi as a sleek, sable one that was an almost complete match - Hiro's _first_ attempt to imitate Baymax but remodeled with all the stolen machinery - stood directly parallel to it's creator now. Heromax matched up with Wasabi and Fred, and GoGo and Honey Lemon set their sights on whoever was piloting Maxie's spare suits. All in all, not the most even of match-ups. But with the entire city in peril, Big Hero 6 would never step down... and no one knew that better than themselves. But the villians needed a little convincing.

"This is pathetic." Shou Yu's voice echoed out from an unseen place. "The deaths of so many talented progeny. You are _NOT_ average citizens and as most movies and shows of supervillians would say, there is no use in having your skills go to waste. Come..." his voice was pleasant. "I have no qualms with you Fred, Wasabi, GoGo and Honey... you as well wǒ de Dabai." The robot blinked. "I will spare you. Hǎo?"

"Well, I won't join you, but if you can get this figure trap off me..."

"FRED!"

GoGo clenched her fist. "It's what _heroes_ really say in all those stupid shows and movies that people remember, even with all the villain's pointless monologuing."

"Heh, heh... like you're doing?"

"Wǒmen jué bù huì jiārù nǐmen." Baymax said. Aunt Cass smiled and nodded.

"What'd he say?" Fred asked.

"We will never join you," She said proudly even as her eyes seemed distant.

It was as if she were there, but thinking of something else.

Wasabi crossed his arms. "Yep."

"Foolish," Shou Yu simply said and the dark dragon raised his hand in a silent signal.

Both matched-up parties rushed each other..

...

"This _is_ a waste," Krei mentioned as he and his assistant boarded his own chopper.

"We can't just do nothing." She insisted.

"We can and we will. There's no use in trying to be a hero."

"Hiro came back," her eyes narrowed behind her glasses, "Who says we can't try to be heros, too?" Krei only fretted and argued. " _Fine_! I've had it. The Hamada family has done nothing but sacrifice and help others, when was the last time _you_ helped others?" He met her eyes and asked her the same thing. "Find yourself another girl."

She took off back to the city square.

Krei puzzled over this as he watched her leave.

...

While Hiro opted not to speak, his aunt kept taking charge. GoGo kept both human-powered operators busy as she had the advantage on speed while Honey attempted to trap the hurtling, red bot suits; GoGo and Honey Lemon's main objective was to keep them occupied but also jam up their ports with chem if they got the chance to.

Fred and Wasabi had a time with Heromax; when Hiro programmed his robots they were more then proficient fighters and kept the two going. The black-suited bot was even more challenging. He seemed only interested in taking out Hiro but his family was always on the fringe, waiting for the black dragon to strike. Hiro looked over at the pair and shrugged when Aunt Cass tried to communicate with him. She shook her head in frustration when suddenly Baymax launched forward to block the robot.

The red dragon flew over Aunt Cass in a back flip and locked his claws under the black dragon's jawline. The woman gasped and Baymax socked the black machine away, it's head popping off in the process. Baymax and Hiro looked at each other when suddenly the head flew out of Hiro's red claws and magnetically reconnected.

"Hiro, is that your-?"

His friend then took to the air with an abnormally powerful leap and was matched up only a split-second later by his dark bot brother. Baymax and Cassandra's eyes met for an even shorter time before they blasted up to aid Hiro. The black bot tried with aggression to attack Hiro, but the masked red bot artfully dodged the crazed attacks with his claws carefully tucked behind his back. Hiro seemed to have the upper hand as Baymax flew up to the black robot's back, when a blur sailed around to meet him.

The dragon's claws rammed into Baymax's port drive.

"NOOOOOO!" Aunt Cass anguished.

Everyone fought the urge to look up.

The red dragon caught the black bot as Baymax would have and Cassanda took off her helmet to ram it once on the head. It was yanked back and Baymax shook his own. There were a few moments of unease, and Aunt Cass was too preoccupied to notice that Hiro wasn't more concerned, when Baymax looked down at the square.

"Our friends are in trouble," he said.

"But, _you_! You just..."

"Human safety is my only concern." Baymax informed her and made sure she was well-connected to his back before bolting down in a blitz to save Wasabi and Fred.

"But Baymax..." Cassandra tried to reason, eyeing his sparking port drive.

They were almost to where Heromax had their friends backed up against the relay building when the black dragon cut them off. Hiro plowed into the shredded machine and fought him back. Baymax never let up in the only other suit Yu's operatives had not taken and he would not let Hiro down. Looking up at Cassandra he requested her permission to access her leader's communicator and she nodded dazedly in consent.

"Fred, Wasabi, the deactivation word is "Orih", Hiro's first name backwards."

"What?!" Wasabi squaked. "I thought before he was just-AHHHHHHHHH."

"ORIH!" Fred belted out. "OrihOrihOrihOrihOrihhhhh."

Cassandra still couldn't speak as Baymax ascertained Heromax was totally inactive, then doubled back around and headed for the others. "What are your orders?" the red robot looked back at her; she gasped in fear. "Would you prefer it if I resumed?"

The woman nodded, knowing she was way in over her head.

Baymax launched a fist out and again successfully distracted his foes.

When both turned to watch, they became so incased in chem balls that they looked like neon-colored statues. GoGo asked Baymax if there _really_ were humans inside the bots. Her sigh was audible to all as she only sliced off the chemicals from their heads. A few questions came to Cassandra and she leaned into Baymax's backside.

"What's wrong with me?" She judged herself so quietly she hoped no one heard her. "Tadashi could rush into a burning building, Hiro could run himself into near insanity trying to be a hero, you can help others without ever once..." Baymax turned to her.

"Self-preservation is not unheroic, it is indicative of a healthy state of mind."

"Sure, but it still feels cowardly."

"It is all right if you need to rest, Aunt Cass..." There was real concern in his voice.

She smiled warmly at him. "No, let's finish this. For Hiro."

"For Tadashi." He added softly.

They both righted themselves from circling the square and then raced in to aid Hiro.

...

All the rest of Big Hero 6 rushed in and started to dismantle the growth ray piece-by-piece when Shou Yu approached them at the base, his fingers laced and the big jeweled rings on his fingers gleaming. They stopped, wondering what to do. He let a wicked, scheming smile slide across his broad face as Krei walked straight up to his side like the two were casual business partners. The team looked at each other and then gawked as two of the other wealthy tycoons also approached them, taking an eerily similiar-looking place at Yu's other side. They all four lined up directly to the superhero that was their _pick,_ but only calmness radiated off of these crooked men.

"Short and sweet," Shou Yu made it clear, his smile defining itself into a certain line. "You will each come with one of these wealthful benefactors, that includes _you_ with me," he eyed a stunned GoGo appreciatively. "And I will not kill the Hamada family."

"How can we ever be certain?" She demanded.

"Is that a yes?" He lifted a brow.

"It really isn't," Honey shook her head.

Shou Yu's eyes widened briefly, but then assumed a peaceful, evil glint again. It wasn't _too_ often that he met with resistence and in most cases, the victims simply had never heard of him. Well, Shou Yu knew how to deal with these types of cases.

"I will have your families killed," he told them, holding up his phone. "With one call."

He didn't emphasize his words.

The team didn't move, but it was not in fear. They stood their ground before a man who had made countless suffer for less. Big Hero 6 understood perfectly what all of this meant and they had to trust that they were strong and brave enough to accept the consequences that came with what they did; They had to be like Tadashi... like Hiro. Wasabi, GoGo, Honey and Fred held hands... well, Honey acutally held his foot.

"FOOLS!" This tactic had clearly never failed.

The team continued to stand their ground together.

...

As Hiro doggedly pursued the black dragon, Baymax and Aunt Cass swooped down to his side. The red dragon looked up and his tinted green eyes met theirs. Baymax tilted his head when he realized his scan frequency was also being blocked when he tried to scan Hiro, much the same as with the other remodeled bots, when Aunt Cass exclaimed for him to look straight ahead. Baymax did not make the same mistake as before and angled himself to take on the bot. Hiro swirled almost playfully above him and Baymax only assessed this long enough to copy him. Together, the two whirled funnel-like towards the black dragon. The creature looked this way and that as they came up fast. With total and complete improvisation, the friends disarmed the bot.

Quite literally in fact!

"That is what I call... disarmed and no longer a threat."

The woman stared at him in shock:

"Please tell me you didn't get that from American Dragon."

"It is _just_ an expression."

Aunt Cass gasped and smiled as the black dragon was armless. Baymax pondered a moment about whether to destroy it when Hiro made the decision for him. He sliced and diced with pinpoint accuracy that rivaled even GoGo. Baymax was still trying to figure something out as Hiro flew away from the black remnants falling back down to earth. Cassandra asked him what was going on as he flew down in tandem with Hiro.

"I wish to assess Hiro's mental state," Baymax told her.

The robot circled around the red dragon and held out his fist to him. Hiro looked at it and then touched his curled-up claw to Baymax's knuckles vertically. This caused the robot to stop as Hiro flew off into the horizon without a second glance. Baymax could only hover there as his best friend left him, his aunt, his team. Slowly, he looked at his horizontally-held fist. Before he could react further a familiar, charging-up noise rerouted his attention instantly and Baymax had Aunt Cass off his back just as fast.

He looked at her with meaning. "Please tell Hiro I am sorry I was not a good friend."

She was gone before she could process this with rocket jet arms that propelled her quickly yet safely down to the square ground. Baymax looked up to meet his fate as as the green discharge hit him. It, unsurprisingly, sent his suit flying in all directions.

To be continued...


	15. No one but you: Pt 3 of 3

**I.**

"You're still here?"

Hiro dropped his shoulders in a listless gesture. He couldn't sigh, roll his eyes or show any signs that he was bothered; it was all part of not getting his butt fired.

"Maybe you should go back to carving voodoo soap dolls," Mr. Moto told him.

The teen smiled at this and looked down at his patient. "I never thought about that."

Mr. Moto didn't return it but instead uncovered his legs. "I slipped on one of them."

Hiro almost collapsed again, narrowly missing the vital fluids.

...

"How is he doin'?" Carrie looked up from her Tablet.

It always surprised Riley that she never played on it.

"Riland, answer me please."

"Misses Mitsuki just experienced more dysphagia on her pudding, Mr. O'Connell is shouting out slurs again and I'm pretty sure that clamp wasn't down tight enough."

"And _where_ is my second aid?" Her sharp brown eyes were unforgiving.

Riley's mouth formed a tight line. "He's trying."

"I didn't ask if he was _trying_ , I asked where is he."

...

"I don't get you." Mr. Suki said as Hiro cleaned up the liquid food spilled across the floor. "You wouldn't even help your little friends out when they needed you?" There was a moment where Hiro paused, flinched, then went back to his cleaning. His eyes never left the floor and he heard the man start to suck in air toward his mop of hair.

Hiro looked up at him defiantly.

The man swallowed. "Why don't you go back to where you belong?" his dark brown eyes were hard, unhappy. "Back to where you can accomplish something." he raised a wrinkled finger to the TV overhead. Hiro turned and his mouth fell open in a gasp.

A big, white figure loomed inside of the city square. Helicopters whirled around it like ships might surround a helpless whale being prepped for harpooning. Hiro's eyes stung as he realized that bright pinpoints of light were flashing. This creature really was Dàbái, or "Big White" as those in China would call Baymax when Hiro would grin and show them pictures of his best friend. Two, giant black eyes turned to a camera.

It was the same one Hiro was observing the creature from.

"Baymax," He whispered in horror.

"Why don't you go help that friend of yours?"

Hiro started breathing hard, sweat falling from his brow.

"Hiro?" The aid from before approached him with their head nurse.

Everything started to move and Hiro saw the red eyes of hellish fire again, the same kind he had fought not to see. But now, he could not look away from the huge, red dragon suit, dark and sinister, and his own eyes reflecting the robot's red eyes in the glass guard of the helmet. No, Hiro gasped and shook his head. His eyes didn't glow because they were catching light off of Baymax's; the bot's firey eyes had a source.

Baymax only looked this way because of what _Hiro_ had done to him.

Now he had done it again.

"Hiro, maybe I should call your aunt." The nurse said.

"No." He whirled around, looking her in the eyes. "I _promised_ I was going to see this through, that I was going to help others by being more selfless." The teen fell to his knees and gathered more food up on the tray. "I might not like it, but I'm not giving up when my friends have sacrificed so much. I'm not going to let them down again."

Hiro sighed softly. "Especially Baymax."

The aid and nurse surrounded him.

" _Ohhh_ , so that's Baymax. The way you talked about him I thought he was your-,"

"Hiro," The nurse forced him to look her in the eye. "Since you've come, you have done nothing but try and try." he blinked in confusion. " _And_ , not succeeded at all."

"Failed... big time!" Riley added.

"You've done a lot of work, but your heart isn't into it." She tapped his chest.

The teen shook his head.

"I can't just leave." Hiro told her. "My patients need me."

"No we don't, really." Mr. Moto muttered.

"What about your friend there?" The nurse pointed as a large, clear dome was being lowered slowly over Baymax by more aerial cranes. "Looks like he needs your help."

Hiro looked down at his heart.

"So Hiro," she tilted his chin up, smiling. "Why not put your heart into where you _are_ needed, and do succeed, and go help your Dubai. He needs you." Hiro felt his eyes widen as he realized this truth; it was what everyone had been telling him all along.

The teen smiled back and raced out of the facility to hurry downtown.

 **II**.

Citizens intrepid enough to catch a glance - or more specifically, take a photo - got as close as police would permit to the giant, white behemoth towering awkwardly in the city square, enclosed in the tight perimeters of tall buildings. Baymax found that he definitely had the girth, but not nearly enough berth. Still, he turned and tried to assess that everyone was fine. His friends were still in their suits, clamoring close to the dome. They looked at each other, looked at him, and wondered what to do. Aunt Cass had changed back in the confusion and was on the phone trying to reach Hiro.

"Why would he _leave_ like that?" Honey asked them all.

"It isn't like Hiro to be in a good mood and ditch us." GoGo agreed.

"Could'a been one of Krei or Yu's goons." Wasabi voiced his suspicions.

"Hey girls, who cares?" Fred didn't lower mask because of the people that loitered around them, but his heart was in his voice. "Hiro's always gonna be one of us, but what about _Baymax_? We've already lost two of our friends, let's not go for a third."

They went quiet with heartbreak and looked up at their blinking teammate.

But without a leader, the ideas just weren't coming to them.

"Come on!" Fred caught their arms and pulled them towards the tycoons. "A bunch of snobby rich guys got us into this mess; one un-snobby rich boy is getting us out."

...

"Destroy it." Shou Yu nodded to his men.

They leveled the growth ray towards a surprised Baymax's midsection.

"Right for the gut should cause the creature to swell and rise, then _pop_."

His deep chuckle was evil.

"WAIT." Krei interjected.

Shou Yu looked with sparse interest at the man. "You interrupt me?"

"Think about it." He worked fast at trying to talk him down. "This is a giant. robot. and by the late Tadashi Hamada. He was also quite popular around my rival school."

Yu raised a disbelieving brow at him, as if he found the man pathetic.

"Wha... uh, no, I'm not _attached_ to it." Krei looked worriedly at Baymax.

The Chinese man turned to his agents again.

"Wait!"

"I don't like being interrupted a second time," Yu's words were terse, eyes burning.

"It _has_ the potential if you remove it's healtcare-,"

"I have no use for such political agendum." He said as they both caught a glimpse of Baymax catching a pilot he'd accidentally whacked out of a plane. Krei gasped in a silent horror. Yu watched coolly as the plane hurled out of control toward the dome.

The man then turned to his former collegue as Baymax caught it. "You care for it."

"I don't." He looked forward.

"A soft side for the soft bot?" Yu's mouth twisted into a cruel smirk.

Krei's blue eyes turned and sharpened on him. "I've been shown what's important."

The man laughed, his chortling piercing the crowds and causing everyone to turn.

" _Yu_?"

"Heh-heh-heh... well, obviously, this creature must be of some value I don't see."

"Then we'll buy you and your goons off."

Everyone looked at the three-eyed creature.

"Sir," one of Yu's men waved him over and spoke hastily in Mandarin to him.

"What are you kids doing?" Krei looked at the team.

"We're not letting anything happen to our friend." GoGo told him firmly.

"Neither am I." Hiro walked around the man and up to his friends.

"HIRO!"

Wasabi snagged the younger boy by the arm and they all squeezed him at once.

"OK, OK." He laughed. "Easy on my last tech suit, gu... _urls_ ," he grinned at GoGo.

She gave him an unsure look.

"Híro, why did you leave again?" Honey wanted to know.

"I didn't." He defended himself, but then realized what this meant.

By the looks on their faces, they realized it, too.

"I'm never leaving you guys again," he shook his head with only a slight tremble to his voice. Hiro cleared his throat. "We'll work this out, we're a team... and a family."

They smiled at him.

"But right now we gotta get to Baymax." He started to lead his team forward.

"Hiro," Krei approached him.

"I know, thanks for the pep talk." The team readied to follow him.

"All of you, Big Hero 6." He looked up to Baymax who looked down on them.

" _HIRO_?" The robot boomed and it was as if an unseen speaker had been turned on.

"We're comin' for you buddy!"

Krei took his arms to make Hiro look at him and his friends nearly ripped him away.

"The way the configurations are expanding and rearranging inside your friend..."

Five out of six of them knew what that meant.

"If we just get everyone back and shrink him down." Fred suggested.

"Fred," Krei released a horrified Hiro.

Wasabi looked at him sadly. "Freddie, there's not much to do if he's still growing."

GoGo, Honey and Hiro immediately went to look at the system.

Wasabi sighed as Fred raced over to the dome and followed the dragon suit's suit to try and break the dome open. Baymax watched as his team scrambled to help him.

"I do not want anyone injurying themselves on my account." His voice boomed.

Everyone covered their ears and moved back further away. Some of the children cried to be taken home. Fredzilla blasted a blaze at the clear dome before stepping back to let Wasabi try slashing through it; they didn't get far as the city police came at them on all sides. The two heroes looked at each other, then backed away slowly.

...

"We need that shrink ray," Hiro observed the missing piece. "It's the only way to-,"

"Reverse the polarity." Shou Yu mocked him.

The teen was breathing heavily, his fingers curling in like claws at his sides as he turned to demand that the sponsor and thief of his tech help him save his friend.

He then saw them: Red eyes.

Hiro stared into the deadly gaze of the dragon.

"Híro." Honey tried to make him focus.

"Get a grip!" GoGo socked his arm.

" _Ow_."

Baymax looked at Hiro but his other friends saw something else.

Both girls looked at Shou Yu, who reeled back in surprise, then back at their leader.

"You don't need to worry about a dragon man," GoGo said in understanding.

"You've got us." Honey touched the boy's arm and smiled.

Hiro smiled back and tried to find a break in the system. He searched, trying to find a loophole, an entrance to the back, _anything_. That's when he discovered it; the real reason for the string of thefts. Shou Yu didn't want a supersized healthcare robot or a gigantic, hybrid city. He wanted a satellite signal so big he could control all of the world's technology; Hiro's shrink ray and one of the biggest communication's relay towers in the world were just tools. He also found the code typed in for the machine.

All feeling and any sense of well-being drained from Hiro.

It was irrevisble.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Krei said but no one heard him.

Baymax's eyes were on Hiro as he looked back up at the best friend he would lose.

To be continued...

 **A/N** : It will be done tomorrow, there's one more chapter left and a small epilogue for a possible sequel. XD More soon.


	16. Exit the Dragon, Enter the Mega Max

**I.**

Hiro worked intently and without pause; he brought out the mainframe, dissecting it down to it's barest codes. He ignored the Chinese man's booming laughter, going from code sequence to code sequence. Hiro checked for a back-up of the digitized shrink ray's code, he asked GoGo and Wasabi to track down the man in his _stolen_ red dragon suit who had inexplicably helped but doomed the team. He ignored Yu when he taunted that he could tell Hiro the identity of the man. The teen searched.

When one thing didn't work, he moved on immediately to the next.

"HIRO." Baymax's voice boomed louder as his huge mass swelled even larger.

Everyone covered their ears, even the team with their somewhat sound-pressurized helmets on unsuccessfully attempted to; Hiro flinched briefly and continued breaking down the streams of code and data. He went through the maze and never looked up.

"Hiro," Baymax said again when GoGo and Wasabi returned after a few minutes.

"Hiro, _listen_ to Baymax. It's the least we can do."

At the word "we", Hiro did as Honey asked.

"I must inform you, though you have emptied the square and most of the environing area, my sensors indicate there are nonambulatory detizens in these buildings. If not deactivated immediately, the impact of my fateful implosion will result in casualties."

"Uh, translation?" Fred asked.

Shou Yu wasn't smug for once. "Sounds like something my brother would say."

"GoGo, Wasabi." Hiro turned to them.

"Wha-?!"

"Citizen's arrest," Honey smiled and shrugged. Yu leered at the oversized care bot.

"He means there's sick and elderly people trapped in their homes." Hiro explained to them palely. His heart quickened, his pulse raced as he looked into Baymax's honest black eyes. He had figured out by now that the dissembling Baymax had requested a day ago was someone who had hacked his best friend; Why was he was genius? If Hiro just listened to heart, he'd be a lot happier. "What'd you need me to do, Max?"

"You must first rescue these people, deactivate and potentially dissemble me."

 _Plop_. The painful, audible break of his heart falling into his stomach didn't stop him.

Hiro turned to Yu, about to ask him to recall his aerial cranes.

"Talk to the lawyers." He held up his phone towards Hiro, smirking the other way.

"Hiro," Krei touched his shoulder. The teen looked at him in desperation.

"I am prepared to offer you a solid momentary-,"

"OK fine," Hiro looked away and at his friends. "Guys, use Baymax's last recorded scans, screw the hackings, and get all of those people to safety. I'll deal with this."

"Hiroto."

The teen looked with surprise at the released Shou Yu; the man himself couldn't be more unaffected if he had found a hair on his jacket. "I am prepared to counter offer whatever he..." He looked with faint interest at Krei. "50 million," Krei responded to this challenge instantly. "Yes, of course. 200 million renimibi for it, Young Hamada."

"We're going by yen."

"Fine, that would be..."

"329,045,8696.83." Baymax's voice echoed.

"Hiro." Another man closed in. "400 million yen."

The teen was blocked, looking around. For his brother, for anyone... His friends were busy helping others, his brother was inside Baymax. Before Hiro could turn around, the other tycoon swooped down. "Better put me down for 450," he grinned at him.

"600 million yen." They all turned to Shou. Even Hiro.

He could not argue when the man straightened down his lapels.

There was a deep exhale. "7 billion yen," Krei held out an already made-out check to Hiro. The teen's eyes widened, the gold in them glittering as flashes of green, blue, yellow and pink light darted around saving the last few remaining citizens downtown.

" _7 billion_ yen."

The two other subdued tycoons stepped back, Shou Yu released his hold on his dark purple blazer. He eyed Hiro with a new interest that went beyond just money, an eye for his tech or even a ruinous lust. The dragon saw something truly treasurable.

He wanted this boy.

Someone dragging his arms back and clasping handcuffs around his large wrists was not what broke his concentration, it was when Cassandra Hamada stepped in front of him from wherever she had been. The woman stared into his eyes, trying to pin him.

He nodded. "The reason you can't remember me is because I've always been there."

When Yu nodded towards Hiro's entrancement, Aunt Cass fell back towards the team that rejoined them. Shou Yu nodded. People, especially a Hamada, could be bought.

...

Wasabi placed his hand over Hiro's shoulder.

"You're sure about this?" he asked as the teen hesitated.

"We can always try and recover Tadashi's chip," Krei metioned.

"Tadashi's chip's been hacked," Hiro said weakly, "The same with all my tech, even the modified ones. Without a passkey, there's nothing I can do and I don't have _it_."

None of them looked at Yu.

"Hiro," Baymax placed a hand on the interior dome. "I do not wish to be a liability."

"Of course you're not!" Honey told him. She and Cassandra hugged each other.

GoGo touched Hiro's free shoulder.

"Dude?" Fred said without hope.

"It's time to grow up," Hiro decided as he looked down at his feet.

Baymax moved away and everyone came to stand beside their leader.

Aunt Cass looked at her nephew with betrayed eyes. However, she was one of few.

Krei's assistant was misty-eyed looking at Hiro. "He's really come a long way."

Her boss nodded. "Mr. Hamada has grown into a mature, responsible young man."

Wasabi and GoGo offered their arms if Hiro wanted to look away; but he didn't.

"I don't believe this," Aunt Cass placed her face in her hands. Honey consoled her.

Fred just stared.

"So grown up, even I couldn't do this," the assistant stepped back.

"All right," Krei directed his own conveniently-called scientists to operate Shou Yu's dissembling machines. The four lasers were smaller then the growth ray. "Let's b-,"

"NAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Everyone looked at Hiro in shock as he flung himself over his team's arms, reaching.

"BAYYYYMAAXXXXXXXXXXX!"

Wasabi grabbed onto him. "What happened to growing up?!" he grunted.

" _I'm never growing up!_ "

Hiro tried to thrust his elbows into the twenty-one-year-old's armor, but of course this was what happened when Hiro didn't use his brain. He struggled to free himself when suddenly Wasabi's arms were torn from grasping onto him. The fourteen-year-old looked at Fred in surprise as his suited friend used his feet to hold Wasabi back.

GoGo and Honey Lemon then yanked _his_ arms back enough to loosen his hold.

Fred poked his head out of his suit. "Go Hiro!"

The teen nodded and ran to where Baymax was swelling to a dangerous level.

...

Krei walked up to the unsigned check floating gently down to the ground.

7 billion yen stared up at him, unclaimed.

He stared disbelievingly after Hiro.

...

"Fred!" GoGo leered at him.

"Freddie?" "Dude!" Wasabi actually rubbed under his arm a little.

"I'm not sorry!"

They all looked at him, not appreciating his oddness for once.

"I'm just sick of all the fighting," he admitted.

Their faces softened as they helped him up and watched with the rest as Hiro ran for his best friend. The lumbering, taut-bellied Baymax tried to dissuade the boy from coming any closer. It might have been comical to some, but Hiro wasn't laughing.

Some of Krei's men tried to stop him but he scrambled around their arms, through their legs and towards the weakened hole in the dome. Hiro tried to ram his shoulder through, he punched and kicked even as the men moved in on him. The team didn't keep them off physically but tried reasoning with them. Amidst all of the arguments, some of the men took off and when Baymax took a step forward to warn them the whole square shook. Hiro looked up as almost everyone was knocked off their feet.

Baymax met Hiro's eyes over his round belly and tried to reach for him... the robot could not even reach his hand out without almost popping his gut. "Hiro," Nothing in his voice suggested he was willing to let this go further. "It is imperative to deacti-,"

A large screen suddenly appeared on the interior curve of the dome.

Everyone was quiet as a video projected from Baymax's chest. The robot blinked in surprise and everyone anticipated Shou Yu to appear on the screen or a countdown sequence to their demise. A pair of socks stepped back across a linoleum floor and a white-shirt, thin-grey-cotton pants-wearing Hiro looked down into a camera where Baymax's charger was in his room, the teen had a soft, bashful look on his face as he looked at the robot who was presumably there. He grasped a microphone tightly.

The time read **4:50 am** two days earlier.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, I really needed a friend...

Then he came out of the blue; and he knew just what to do...

If there were 99 of him, I would never trade for them..."

Hiro's voice became sweeter,

"He's... _my_ Maxie... my _Bay_ -Maxie.

When I needed a friend, he was there 'til the very end.

He's... _my_ Maxie. My _Bay_ -Maxie."

"He's my only F.F.B... my Forever Fab Bestie.

Whether Chillmax'in or defendin',

He's always _there_ for the befriendin'.

He'll help you save the day... and make sure everything's okay."

Baymax blinked from his incredible height.

A motified Hiro couldn't even blink, when suddenly his Aunt Cass wrapped her arms around him. He watched; frozen, life over, as Honey hugged his other side. Followed by Fred. Wasabi ruffled his black hair and GoGo lightly touched his chin with her fist.

4:53 am, Hiro slowly went to his knees as he had been gradually walking closer.

He rested a hand on Baymax's charger.

"You're _my_ Maxie..." Hiro looked straight into Baymax's eyes, singing earnestly,

"My _Bay_ -Maxie..."

The boy hugged the outside of the charger.

"My dear Maxie... my sweet Maxie..."

Hiro sat up on his knees and sighed, looking longingly into the camera lens.

"I know you can't hear this... the hackers will probably erase this along with..." He paused, looking away in pain. "But you-," the recording fizzled out. The current look on Hiro's face was something along the lines of having forgotten a particular thing you had never intended to show anyone, and the horror of having a post you could never delete. He gradually became aware of his aunt saying something to him like,

"I have never been more proud of you."

"But I never-,"

"It was the thought, not the intention." She brushed his bangs back, smiling warmly.

Hiro looked at his friends nervously and saw that their confidence in him was back.

"Hiro?" Baymax boomed gently.

Wasabi gave Hiro a slight push forward and he nodded once at his team.

The top of the dome parted with two aerial cranes pulling them, presumably on the orders of Krei, and Hiro slowly approached the wholly engorged Baymax. The robot didn't try to order him away this time and instead bent sideways to allow the teen to climb onto the tips of his fingers. He then raised him up to meet his flat, round eyes.

...

As Hiro's family watched the two finally confront all that had taken place that week, whomever had been piloting Maxie's American Dragon-inspired suit joined them all.

To be continued...

 **A/N:** One more chapter...


	17. The best friend he always had

**I.**

Hiro tried not to look too guilty as he gazed into Baymax's huge, hyperspectral cameras.

Most would call them eyes... and most would say Hiro failed miserably.

"Hiro, I do not understand. Your recent actions have conveyed your disinterest in me."

"Baymax." He held up his hands, avoiding Baymax's brimful state as it allowed. "I know what I've done... I know, I know I'm terrible at words. I know... " he looked. At first so he wouldn't have to meet his friend's eyes. But then to _see_ what he'd done. "I know I'm the worst friend in the entire world," Hiro achingly looked up. "I know nothing I ever say or do is gonna make up what I've done to you! Baymax, I put you here. I put every one of us in this mess. It's my fault we're going..." When Baymax said his name, he paused.

The robot looked up a moment.

Hiro knew he was just ascertaining everyone else had gotten to a safer distance.

"Baymax, please at me." He entreated.

Baymax complied questioningly. Hiro realized his friend really didn't understand.

"Please... look. at. _me_."

The robot struggled. Hiro wilted.

His honey-colored eyes were deperate as he touched Baymax's enormous face. "Will you stop just being my healthcare companion for a second? You know you're more then that to me." If robots could look confused... "Baymax, you're my best friend. My Maxie."

"I am your Maxie?" Now he was really confused. "But you never intended to tell me."

The teen fell to his knees, shaking his head. "I'm no good at this."

"Hiro, I truly mean these things to you?"

" _Yes_." Hiro stood up and tried again. He was never good at-, "Baymax, I love you." The teen grabbed onto his puffed-out pal. "You're my best friend and I love you." He slowly felt a large hand cup his back from behind. Hiro looked up teary-eyed as a big, balloon finger brushed his bangs back. Baymax still looked surprised. "Buddy, I know you don't believe me." When Baymax touched the side of his head, he stopped. He looked at him.

That moment they had in Hiro's garage came to him, but he wasn't thinking of Tadashi.

 _Hiro wasn't thinking of Tadashi._

"Hiro," Baymax said in realization.

The teen grasped onto his face harder:

He felt the slight pressure increase gently on his back.

"I know you can't believe me," Hiro reiterated. "You don't have to forgive me. I just... I just want you to know _I love you_. No one can **ever** take your place, and I am sorry I..."

And Baymax hugged Hiro like he had when the teen had reactivated him.

"You are my best friend." The healthcare companion closed his eyes, "I love you, too."

Some peace Hiro had never known, as if things had fallen into place somehow, entered.

He smiled with full acceptance.

"And I am satisified with my care."

Baymax opened his white lids and looked down at him.

"That is very clever, Hiro." He said a bit less robotically.

His best friend nodded once. "That's why I thought of it." he said happily.

...

GoGo sized the mechanized dragon up with a wry look. "Now what'd we do about you?"

His red-suited head turned to her.

Fred punched his tethered claw into his other tethered claw. "I say we finger-trap him!"

Wasabi scratched under his chin where some beard was growing. "I say we grill him."

Honey chuckled nervously. "I say we free him?" she said.

"I say we find out what his deal is!" Cass marched over and the dragon stepped back.

His claws went up; The woman didn't mess that.

"Who _are_ you?" she demanded.

He tilted his head to the side and then pointed up at Hiro.

Baymax and he were shrinking at an incredible rate even from this distance.

...

The robot blinked as he and Hiro hurtled back down to earth.

Something clutched his middle and he saw big, black gloves wrapped tightly around him as they fell like a descending meteor. It took a few moments and then the parody of the moment hit him; Hiro was trying to protect him. Something shifted and the boy gasped.

His friends were waving at him some distance below at they were now gently floating down. Blinking, he rubbed at his head and turned to see Baymax, deflated, acting as a parachute. Hiro grinned sheepishly up at his buddy and hugged onto his arms willingly.

"Y...you are not still mad at me?" Came a woozy voice.

Hiro's eyes widened perceptibly. "Baymax?" he turned to see his friend's wonky eyes.

"Low... battery." The robot's head fell to the side.

Baymax _hadn't_ been recording him the previous night! He'd sacrificed re-charging to-,

"H-Hiro... am-am I b-bad friend?"

The teen shook his head immediately. "No! Of course not."

"Th-then why didn't you... why didn't you want me around?"

Hiro felt a wave of emotion pierce his heart as he listened to him.

"Maxie," he gripped his friend's arm for security. "It's not that I didn't want you around. I..." Baymax listened thoughtfully. "I was _scared_. Scared of myself. You didn't cause it."

"Why... why couldn't you just t-tell me?"

Hiro considered this. "I don't know," he swung on his friend's arms lightly at they were nearing the ground, it was so lighthearted he smiled. "I wasn't myself... Maybe _I_ was the robot," he smiled up at his best friend. Baymax smiled back at him with his eyes.

"You are... prepare for..."

The teen casually turned so that his feet slid across the dust and cement-pebbled earth.

Baymax landed safely in his arms and Aunt Cass presented the charger she had picked up on the quick run home. Everyone stood around what was at once a completely better outcome in direct contrast to their last major event; and an even more bewildering one.

"Okay," Fred turned his sky blue eyes knowingly towards the dragon. "Shall I?"

He lifted a tethered claw to unmask the vermillion vigilante.

"No need," A man said from beneath the dragon's head, raising his claws.

Everyone pulled back in surprise a bit as a short-haired, familiar-looking man revealed himself. Aunt Cass narrowed her green eyes a moment, then she stepped back as she realized who this was. The Asian man wore no glasses but he was rather recognizable.

"Hello, Hiroto," the forty-something man smiled at the teenager.

"Hasaki?" Aunt Cass questioned.

He smiled at her knowledgeably. "Hello, Cassandra," he said in a warm voice.

"Aunt Cass?" Hiro looked at her.

"Hiro... this is your Uncle Hasaki." She said reluctantly.

The man sighed. "Cassandra, he looks just like Chi-Chi." His gaze shifted back to Hiro.

"My _Uncle_ Hasaki?"

This uncle in question looked upon his nephew pleasantly and asked:

"Duōshǎo qián nǐ shuō pǔtōnghuà?"

Hiro stared back at him in confusion.

Hasaki grew noticeably displeased. "Cassandra, you haven't been consistent with him?"

"I didn't consider a language we never speak at home a requirement," She hissed.

The team looked at Aunt Cass's hot-temper with growing confusion.

"Wait! What?! Since when has our family ever spoken Mandarin Chinese?"

Hasaki turned back to Hiro with a smile. "Your mother's looks, but my personality."

"Hiro is _nothing_ like you!" Cassandra shouted fiercely, planting herself at his side.

He looked up at her in shock as the man touched his forehead to his fingers.

When he did this Fred elbowed GoGo, Wasabi and Honey exchanged a look.

They were all smiling now.

"Aunt Cass?" Hiro's request edged on a demand.

"All right," She looked at him anxiously and touched his face. He dropped his shoulders.

Everyone huddled closer.

"A long time ago..."

Krei cleared his throat. "I hate to interrupt everyone," he said as he came closer. "But I need to point out that I'm still going to need Hiro to sign that check if the downtown is ever going to get repaired." His wryness outmatched even the most sarcastic teenager.

Hiro smiled and cuddled his charging Baymax close to him. Wasabi touched his arm with a proud look as the others took one last moment to revel in their happy ending. It was also in this moment that Hasaki realized this was not his and he was merely an intruder.

"I..." He stepped back.

"Ahhh, man." Fred held up his fingers.

Hasaki approached him with a chuckle. "Having some difficulties?"

Fred nodded.

The man took out a small tool kit, pulled out a thin piece of metal and slid it into the tiny hole in the green-and-yellow, zig-zag tiled trap. With an expert twist, the tiny paper came right off. Fred floundered in his own amazement and gratitude as he lunged up to hug the man. "Oh!" Hasaki held his arms back, laughing. The others joined in, relieved.

Hiro stared at him in some awe. "You're really my uncle, Mr. Hasaki?"

Cassandra eyed the teen nervously.

"Really, Cassie? You didn't-,"

"Don't call me that!"

"Are you into science?" GoGo looked at the man questioningly.

"Well... no, I was never the Trekkie type I'm afraid." he clasped his hands. "But I _am_ a skilled linguist in seven languages of all dialects, an avid calligrapher and a skilled ma-,"

"In some parts of San Fransoyko, it's considered rude to brag." Aunt Cass cut him off.

He smiled slowly. "I was going to say, I am skilled in martial arts. Second only to-,"

"Don't you have some more of Hiro's life to miss?"

Hasaki finally acknowledged her terseness. "If you would just let me explain..."

"If it's okay," Hiro came to stand between them. "Can we do all that back at home?"

Aunt Cass smiled.

"Yes." The man nodded. "We'll have plenty of time to discuss these things later, Hiroto."

"Uh... Hiro," The teen looked at him in confusion. "I'm sorry, you're both siblings, or...?"

The gold in Hasaki's eyes brightened. "I'm your father's brother, Hiro. A Hamada."

...

 _Spat... pat... spatter_... Rain.

When the noise of something that wasn't "Ow," hit Baymax's sensors, he flipped open his eyes immediately. Confused, his black optics darted around Hiro's darkened room. He blinked and then noticed a hand grasped the bottom of his charger. Looking up he saw an arm wrapped tightly across the top of his concealed head. It took Baymax an unusual few seconds to grasp what was going on when he saw Hiro sleeping with his cheek resting lopsided on top on his arm. The robot blinked up at the teen, knowing it was Hiro who usually awoke to find Baymax holding him. Now he shut his eyes, for the moment not bothering with his odd reactivation, and allowed things to be as they were.

 **II**. The next morning...

It was sunny and cloud-spotted as Hiro led his best friend excitedly down a sidewalk.

"Hiro, I do not see the practicality in blindfolding me." Baymax stumbled about.

"We're almost there!" The teen bounced forward every few steps. "Eyes closed?"

"Why would further impairment of my vision make me a better best friend?"

"Cause how 'bout..." Hiro removed the red sash. "A healthcare companion."

Baymax stared up the length of a tall, brick-building that was a nursing facility.

"Hiro?" Surprise came into his voice.

"I know it's not fancy, or..." The teen pushed on the robot's port, removed the yellow card with his battle moves and offered him a blue one instead. "This," Hiro smiled, but it didn't quite touch his eyes. Baymax took the offered card and looked at it between his chubby fingers. "It has all your memories on it. The good and not so..." he shrugged a little, looking away. Then changed his mind. "I know Tadashi's chip was compromised."

"Hiro," he said slowly.

" _Your_ chip." Hiro smiled. "The virus can't touch that back-up drive. I had to cancel all of your old healthcare protocol because that's where the virus was... but, Baymax, I could never... I couldn't take your first healthcare chip out, even though I re-uploaded your coding onto the blue one, the green one is what makes you, you." Hiro shook his head a little, remembering."I can't explain it and I can never replicate it. The blue one is just in case." He looked down at the yellow battle chip in his hand when Baymax picked it up.

Hiro turned to him curiously.

"I am your healthcare robot," He touched the green chip. "And a superhero." he placed Hiro's yellow chip back in. Baymax then looked into the big, honey-colored eyes of his hero. "But most importantly, Hiro." He touched the blue chip. "I am your best friend."

No one peered out of the hospital or paused on the street.

No one said the future would be easy or that man and machine would always agree.

No one even commented on the 100-foot robot from yesterday.

But as Baymax and Hiro embraced, there was no where else either wanted to be.

The End.

 **A/N** : GAH. I'm so sorry it took so long to finish. I've been busy, lazy and that's just as inexcusable as... HEY! I finished a Big Hero 6 fanfic. HOORAYYYY! Yayyyyyy. xD Well, I hope this was as fun to read as it was to write. I actually started this story because a close friend of mine passed away back in March. And, well, I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye. So this is my story dedicated to Joyce. :3 Rest in peace my dear friend.

~ Lavenderpaw ~


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